Tudor LodgeIn Private collection

Watercolour on Bockingford
19 x 12 inches

This house is called Tudor Lodge (for obvious reasons!) and was a real challenge to draw because of all the architectural lines in it that all had to go in the right direction!

But although old buildings might "look" like they have straight lines in them, there are tiny imperfections in the line where the old wood has settled and warped slightly that gives the gentle sag to the roof line, and the timbers on the house itself. Of course part of making a house like this look interesting is not to make every black timber deep black, but to give a bit of colour change within the darks to make it more pleasing to the eye. I loved painting the tiled roof, putting slightly different colours within the blue wash to give the impression of lichens and aged tiles. The old red brick wall infront of the house has lovely faded reds and ochres in it to show the aged variations within the wall. Infact, it was a joy to paint this picture because of all the lovely textures within it 'stone, tile, brick, timber, glass, paint, wood, foliage, tarmac, and sky! Its always worth looking at windows when you see a house painted ' to see how the artist has depicted it ' a window is like a living thing ' the glass in it isn't a solid dark, its a light and airy sheet of translucency that picks up what's infront of it as much as what's behind it, in some places.

So, all in all I loved painting this challenging picture.