Painting process | Evening Glow on Belgrave Road, Pimlico
For seven years, I lived on the street behind those phone boxes in beautiful Pimlico. In winter the sun is so low that it funnels straight down some of the streets, lighting the white terrace houses in oranges and yellows along its way. On the corner of Belgrave Road, at the right time of day, it also makes the red phone boxes glow.
This painting is all about capturing that light effect. But the colours also drew me to paint this scene, with the rich purple road, bright red phone boxes and cold yellow light.
Preliminary sketches and studies
I started with a rough little sketch of the scene, mapping out the lights and darks.
I decided to place the tallest tree almost in the middle of the composition, with the trees and buildings either side angled up towards it. This enhances the perspective.
I then painted these two little sketches to experiment with colour choices. The buildings are white, but this appears as green, blue and orange in the shadows and bright yellow in the light.
This final sketch helped me to work out the colours in the sky and buildings more accurately. I made the sky a cooler blue and brought cool tones into the buildings too.
The painting process
I started with a deep purple underpainting. I chose this because it’s close to the colour of the road, which dominates the foreground. Painting over a similar colour helps to unify the whole painting so the road doesn’t feel out of place.
I started by painting the lightest lights - the sky and highlights on the buildings, and the darkest darks- the roofs, tree trunks and bike racks. From here I can judge the value of my colours between these two reference points.
This is the first layer finished. Everything is roughly blocked in and from here I can bring in detail and refine the edges between each element.
I realised the perspective wasn’t working on the building on the right hand side, so I repainted the windows and tiles on an angle. With the correct perspective this building now felt part of the scene instead of copy and pasted into it.
Painting in the trees was a big moment for this painting as it gave a more complete feeling to the sense of light. I used a tiny brush and a loose hand for the branches so they are imprecise. I didn’t use black paint, but rather a mix of ultramarine blue, burnt umber and burnt sienna.
Painting the little details and how the orange light hits the windows of the phone boxes really made them sing.
And adding the road lines and subtle green sheen where the light hits the asphalt gave depth and dimension to this big expanse of purple that holds the whole painting together.
Finished!
"Evening Glow on Belgrave Road, Pimlico"
75 x 55cm, oil on linen.
I love the rich colours in this painting and I had so much fun painting all the little details.
Details
The cool lemony light flickering through the painting gives it a wintery glow. I loved capturing those little glints of light through the scene.
I love how there’s little surprising moments of red throughout the painting. I included the red Boris bikes, witches hats, traffic lights and phone boxes. I think these give subtle vibrancy to such a wintery painting.
I love how the white buildings are actually shades of peach, soft yellow, muted purple and blue! Discovering these unexpected colour combinations and bringing them together in a convincing way is my favourite thing about painting.
