Painting process | Twilight Reflections; Palace of Westminster from Lambeth Bridge
On an evening walk this summer I crossed over Lambeth Bridge. It was one of those long summer days where the lights come on well before the sun fully sets. Gazing over the river to Westminster, the combination of blue-greens and oranges struck me as really beautiful. And the structure of horizontal and vertical lines immediately stood out to me as a scene to paint.
I wanted this painting to feel intriguing, as your eye is drawn up across the staircase, the river and the pontoon to Big Ben.
Preliminary sketches and studies
I started with rough sketches, trying to work out what my painting was about and how I should compose it. I ended up going for the portrait composition to emphasise the horizontal dark and light shapes.
Once I had the composition down, I worked on understanding the value structure by splitting the scene into 5 shades.
Next, I painted two tiny sketches to get a feel for the big colour choices. These are messy, but useful to see the overall impression of the idea.
Finally, I did a larger paint study to bring together my ideas on composition, values and colours.
The painting process
I started with a muted green underpainting. I’m choosing the colour based on instinct these days, and this time I wanted a cohesive cool green tint to the light.
Here is the first layer complete. I started with the lightest lights and darkest darks and then worked my way in from there. There’s so much colour in the grey cloudy sky, which I find so satisfying to pull out.
The next step was to refine the shapes and add texture and detail. The closer something is to the foreground, the more detail is needs to have to appear realistic and communicate depth.
I added touches of orange through the painting- in the palace lights, the little lifebuoys, the speedboat, and in the subtle light on the stairs. This ties the painting together and sets off the green light, bringing life and warmth to this soft, cloudy scene.
Painting the palace was a process of adding and then taking away- painting spires and then the sky between repeatedly until it looked right. It was especially important, and tricky, to get the proportions on Elizabeth Tower correct. I wanted the palace to be instantly recognisable, but to have soft edges and little detail, just as it would appear across the river in real life.
Finished!
“Twilight Reflections; Palace of Westminster from Lambeth Bridge”
33 x 41 cm, oil on linen.
I love the atmosphere in this painting, and I’m so happy I took a risk with the unusual composition looking over the stairs.
Details
Close-up, everything looks like its vibrant and moving. I didn’t paint any one thing super precisely, but rather focused on creating an impression of the light. No line is exact or straight, and this gives the scene life.
Here you can see how I’ve painted the Palace of Westminster, with its lights reflecting on the water. I created the effect with many layers of small dabs of paint.
I love painting water. It’s such a messy collection of paint strokes up close. But, stand back, and it turns into watery magic. Painting water is all about capturing light and movement, and painting what you see rather than what you know (or think you see).
