Seeing beyond the clutter and re-seasoning

Sometimes simple things aren't quite so simple.

Or at least the illusion of them being simple is actually quite complex.

MMm..... I'll explain.................

The other week I was asked to do a little commission of St Wystans church in Repton in the county of Derbyshire. No problem, I'm very familiar with the church and the village and have painted St Wystans before. An easy job.  Simple, I thought.

W r o n g  !

It took me a while to realise it wasn't going to be simple.

It was easy enough to go and take the photos of the church, so I had the right images to work from. The woman commissioning the painting had asked for the spire, yew tree and lych gate to be in the picture. Which meant that I had to be standing back quite some way from the church to include the tall spire. No problem. I took a load of photos from various viewpoints knowing that I would possibly use two or three for information for creating the painting.

When I was ready to start the painting, what I considered to be a simple little painting, I looked through my source photos for the suitable ones..................and realised......................that there.......................was...........something missing....................from the information I required. Like....................I couldn't see all of the church AND the spire AND the lychgate AND the yew tree behind it AND the clock in the church AND the arch by the side of it. Because anyone who knows Repton knows that there is a stone arch next to the chuch. Without it, it could be ANY church really. Its the arch that makes it SPECIFIC. And the problem was..................I couldn't see the whole of the arch AND the church. The reason being......................street clutter. Cars, loads of 'em, parked or being driven on the road, street signs, lamposts, and general clutter, none of which helped me see what it was I was trying to paint.

And added to ALL of that...............was the photos I had were of the wrong bloody time of year!

Who'd want a picture of trees without leaf, of heavy dark shadows across the road, and a feeling of bleakness about the picture. There had been no mention at all of season for the commission, but I bet you the woman doesn't want a cold February to be the day depicted in the picture. No, she's going to want a warm April spring day  or a nice day in June in her picture. MMMmmm........................ Ok then, artistic licence is requred, a hell of a lot of it!!!!!! :)

Here's the photo I used as my basis for the painting, and below it is the finished painting. A simple little watercolour of St Wystans church. It's like playing "Spot the difference" except, there's so many differences - removal of five cars and a white van, a set of  unphotogenic traffic lights, two street lights, a flag pole, a notice board, a church fund donations board, a litter bin, two unappealing roadsigns, a wall, overhead cables, strong shadows, a dog with three legs and the cross-eyed monkey. Well, ok, maybe I was joking about the last two, but the rest are certainly there!

So, here it is...... the simple painting.

Not so simple, is it!!!!! :)