Spotlight on UK Plein Air Artist David Sawyer

In a departure from his usual architectural subjects, David Sawyer shares a garden study, including his techniques and supplies.

Painting a Garden Study

BY DAVID SAWYER

A lot of my work involves travelling and painting architectural subjects, but this painting is something of a departure as it is a study made in the gardens of a local park here in South London and does not involve any depictions of buildings or architecture.

It is painted in quite a low key on the tonal range so that I can keep the colours bright. I tried not to use white as much as possible as adding white tends to make the paint mixtures cooler and a little grey, especially the greens. I was trying to keep the colours brilliant and saturated.

I use a mixture of Michael Harding oil colours and Winsor and Newton paints. The greens here were based around viridian and emerald then I used earth colours like yellow ochre pale and Indian yellow red shade to modify.

In regards to my brushes, on the whole they are synthetic flats, up to one and a half inches. I use a rag to wipe off and soften the edges while painting. Using matt glazing medium helps speed up some of the drying time and means I can add details like the flowers without mixing into the paint beneath.

Although these garden paintings started out as part of my plein air painting course I am now continuing to use the subject of the garden as a motif in some of my recent work.

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