Springwood Primary School Commission

 

I was recently commissioned by staff at Springwood Primary School in Liverpool to paint a watercolour of the old school building for the retiring head teacher.

When I was initially contacted and shown the photographs that I was to work from, I asked if any more could be taken from a slightly different angle and if possible, on a sunny day. I was informed that this was not possible as the building no longer existed and had since made way for a new building!

Fortunately, I was able to use a little ‘artistic license’ and work with what I had to produce a painting from the desired angle in the right light conditions. 

This was the viewpoint that I wanted to use as a basis for the painting (below). I broke up the overcast sky with some blue sky breaking through the clouds. I felt that the railings in the foreground didn’t necessarily need to be there, so removed them. I decided to include the yellow road markings as these are a feature of many schools. The only other adjustment was to add the cherry blossom to the tree to bring in a dash of colour.

This was the only photograph I could find of the old school entrance. I could just make out enough detail to use it as a reference for extending the main image to the left.

This is a close up of the date stone which was positioned over the window on the far right. Quite a significant feature which was to be included in the panting.

Here is the finished watercolour. I was very happy with how it worked out and hopefully will be a lovely memento of the school for the retiring Head Teacher.

Are you looking for a gift to mark a special occasion? I'd love to hear from you - get in touch to find out more about the process of commissioning a piece of original artwork...  

Call me on 07792 553 273 or send an e mail to peter_chapple@hotmail.com

Home in Tockwith

I will often ask the people that I meet if they would like to commission a picture of their present home as a sort of memento. Very often, this is an attractive proposition especially in homes that has been in the family for some time in which children have been raised in and all the memories that go along with family life.

When I met Andy Bolton and his wife, Viv, in Tockwith recently, they not only wanted a painting of their current house, which they had moved into within the last year but they also enquired if there was a way that all of their five previous homes could be captured in some way.

My suggestion was to produce a single piece of artwork made up of all five properties. It would need to be a reasonable size, about A3, to fit all the images. After sitting down together to go over the finer details, it was decided not to include one of the properties, an apartment, which didn’t particularly lend itself to the project. So we were left with four properties which fitted more comfortably together within the piece.

Fortunately Andy, had kept all of the sales particulars from each of his previous homes and I was able to scan the photographs from each document. I produced a mock up of the layout in photoshop to give an idea of the final presentation, which was agreed upon and then I was all set to get painting.

The painting of the present home in Tockwith was an A3 watercolour painted on to Bockingford 300gsm NOT paper. The photo I worked from was taken by myself on a bright morning with the sun illuminating the facade of the property, casting shadows which is always good for adding definition to the various details. A little artistic license was used to bring the ash trees on the left into leaf as it was still only February when I took the pictures. The previous properties were painted in the same medium. Starting by soaking the paper and adding the base colours which I allowed to bleed into one another to create those soft edges between each image. I love this effect that you can achieve in watercolour. Multiple washes of colour were added, getting darker as I went along until I arrived at the finished result.

Looking at the completed pieces, I’m delighted with how they look together. It really is an imaginative and effective way of capturing the various houses that have been lived in over a couples life time.

This is what Viv had to say about the process:

“Pete impressed us from the start with his professionalism, quiet charm, easy manner and obvious talent. We were so delighted by his early sketches of our home that we commissioned a second painting from him to feature the many houses we have lived in over 35 years.

Pete worked from photographs he took of our present house and from images we supplied of our previous homes, then emailed us his sketches for comments and approval. The whole process from first visit to finished product took just three weeks.

We now have two original works of art which not only look beautiful but evoke lovely memories. Thank you, Pete.”

What next? After spending a bit of time in Tockwith I was able to take some more general photos of the village such as the village hall, the pub and the church and I’m hoping to capture the essence of the village through a series of sketches. Watch this space!