Quiero's Street, Fort Cochin

Finished the painting today. It basically looks like when I first started sketching this location before the thunderstorm arrived and it all went dark and rather wet! These trees are very characteristic of the ones that grow all over Fort Cochin, providing a lot of shade from the hot sun and a certain amount of shelter from the rain. I'm glad I put the rickshaw in on the right as I think it helps the composition and echoes the the lead-in lines of the dappled light in the foreground. The central building incidentally is an Ayurvedic clinic, the buildings at left are antique shops. Fort Cochin is a very quiet, laid back place that provides a welcome respite from the full-on, chaotic experience that is the rest of India! This painting will feature in my forthcoming article about gathering reference for paintings when abroad in Artists & Illustrators magazine, probably the July or August issue. 18" x 18" oil on board.

Quiero's Street, Fort Cochin - stage 6

Finished the rickshaw and put some time into the buildings at left as well as underpainting some figures, another rickshaw and a bicycle ready to finish tomorrow. This painting will be in my upcoming feature in Artists & Illustrators magazine on gathering and using reference from trips abroad.

Quiero's Street, Fort Cochin - stage 5

After being away for four days I managed to get a good day's work in today. The dappled light on the foreground is pretty much finished now and made a start on the rickshaw. I also felt that I wasn't getting across the feeling of the shade provided by the tree's wide canopy of branches and leaves so I took the tree right across the top of the picture on the left as well as making the farther tree larger and wider.

Quiero Street, Fort Cochin - stage 4

Painted the tree and finished the buildings behind it as well as making a start as to where I want the patches of dappled sunlight on the ground around the tree. Trying to keep the sky looking hot and dusty by keeping it yellow which is actually different weather to when I was there, it was between the monsoons in October when there was a thunderstorm most afternoons and the air was pretty humid.

Quiero's Street, Fort Cochin - stage 3

Worked on the orange house and a bit on the one next to it, trying to get the effect of dappled patches of sunlight on the walls. Not sure if I have made the orange too dark, I will look at it in the morning and decide then.

Quiero's Street, Cochin - stages 1 and 2

Stage 1

Stage 2

Just starting the fourth painting from my India trip, "Quiero's Street, Cochin". Above the painting can be seen the original gouache sketch that I painted there but only got 40 minutes on it before an afternoon thunderstorm came along and I had to pack up very quickly. It took a while to find what I thought was going to be a quiet place to paint in Fort Cochin but as ever in India I was soon surrounded by a small throng of friendly and inquisitive people that seemed to appear from nowhere including a schoolkid that showed me some of his own work, god knows what he thought of my sketch! Stage one shows the initial sketch and tonal block-in with Burnt Sienna and stage two shows the following days' colour block-in; you will note that I changed the perspective on the street on the left and raised the buildings a bit. I quite like the dusty atmosphere and hope that I keep it as the painting progresses. Fort Cochin is a very laid back place, particularly for India and I hope that I can get this across in the painting; these trees incidentally are typical of Fort Cochin, they must be pretty old as they are large and have a wide canopy for shade from the sun, the rain still gets through though!

Dawn, Santa Cruz Basilica, Cochin

Another painting from my trip to India last year, this one virtually a two-day painting. In a way this painting was just an excuse to try out a new way of doing reflections that was initiated in "A Sidestreet In Madurai". Due to the Portuguese colonial past there is a strong Christian presence in Cochin, this Catholic church being one of the oldest in India although the present building only dates back to Victorian times. The blue building is a shrine to the Virgin Mary. 18 1/2" x 18 1/2" oil on board.

VOTE FOR ME!....errr, please

My painting "Cuckmere Meanders To Seaford Head" has been accepted in the fifth round of the bi-weekly online art contest "You Be The Judge". If you would like to vote for it please go to the link below:

http://www.brianneher.com/you_be_the_judge_art_contest_2013_voting_page.aspx

A Sidestreet In Madurai

The second painting of my somewhat truncated and problematical trip to India last year. I have deliberately kept it busy (actually the sidestreets in Madurai are much more chaotic) and colourful to try and get across the visual impact that India has. I have noticed that there are a number of artists including Ken Howard that have been painting India so I am hoping that after a number of abortive attempts at selling paintings of "exotic" places that I am finally in the Zeitgeist and will paint some more and then approach some galleries (and maybe enter some competitions) with them. I feel that I have moved on a bit in how I am painting these days, mainly thanks to the small two-day paintings that got me working looser and faster. The next one I think will be a scene of chaos in the rush hour (all the day I reckon), probably from the back of a bicycle rickshaw. 18" x 36" oil on board.

A Sidestreet In Madurai - stage 7

Finished off most of the end of the street, with a bit of luck I can finish the painting tomorrow: I need to finish the figures, put in some parked motorcycles on the right side of the street, put in the puddles of water and then finish off the ground (plus any minor adjustments). The next one might be from the back of a bicycle riskshaw at rush hour in Madurai......

A Sidestreet In Madurai - stage 6

Nearly finished the shrine although some minor adjustments will be made after I have the end of the street finished. I will be in London tomorrow so I will finish the shrine and make a start on the end of the street on Thursday.

A Sidestreet In Madurai - stage 5

OK pretty much finished the walls nearest to the viewer and have made a start on the shrine. I'm hopefully using things I have learned from all those two-day paintings (one of the reasons why I do them) as this will be a relatively busy and complicated picture and I don't want to paint it too tight but keep the brushwork relatively loose over the whole painting. I still have the problem of making the shrine "sit" in the setting without looking separate from it or from dominating it due to it's vibrant colour.

A Sidestreet In Madurai - stage 4

Today I worked on the walls nearest the viewer as I need to establish them first before proceeding to the background (the opposite way to how I normally work). It is only when I have painted the end of the street that I can put in the reflections in the puddles that lie in the middle of the street. I am trying to get across the feeling of an Indian street through colour and don't intend to use much neutrals but to put colour into nearly all areas of the painting.

A Sidestreet In Madurai - stages 1 - 3

Burnt Sienna "drawing"

Tonal underpainting

These are the first two days work on a step-by-step I am going to post of the second painting I am working on from reference taken on my recent, somewhat truncated visit to Cochin and Madurai in October 2012. It demonstrates my current way of working that now dispenses with a preliminary charcoal drawing and instead starts with a rough but relatively accurate "drawing" painted with in this case Burnt Sienna which is quickly followed by a tonal underpainting in the same colour for the first days' session. The third picture shows it at the end of day two in which I have roughly put in a first layer of colour that helps me to get an overall idea of how the colour is going to work, particularly as to how the atmosphere is to develop. The old central part of Madurai around the main temple is a chaotic and colourful experience that I want to get across in the painting. My main concern is how to integrate the box-like shrine in the left foreground with the rest of the picture which is compositionally a potential problem. 
 

First layer of colour

Autumn, St. James's Park

Looking towards Buckingham Palace by The Mall. A quick one-and-a-half-day painting to keep me occupied over a cold Easter weekend. 12" x 12" oil on board.