This Jacobean manor in Hertfordshire is a beautiful venue for weddings and an oil painting has been commissioned as a gift for a couple getting married there in January 2015. There are a lot of windows to paint in this one which I carefully drew to start with on A3 sized primed canvas board. I painted the sky first, then the following day when it had dried a little I added the rooftops and shadow areas and applied a light wash of yellow ochre across the whole building. Next was the daunting task of painting all those windows which I did in three sittings using my tiniest brush and thinned black paint. After leaving the windows to dry I worked on painting the shadows and drains on the building and breaking up the black windows with curtains and a few reflections. At the next sitting I mixed up a load of greens and although I had hoped to be looser with the garden area, it still needs careful painting as it contains structure and formality. The top picture shows the finished painting.
