Wing, nr Oakham

This was a commission picked up during my tour of Rutland and Leicestershire in September when it was unusually hot. The photograph you can see was taken from standing on top of a neighbors wall over the road, which was really the only suitable place to take it. The photo was taken on a cloudy day and I wanted to paint it as if the conditions were a bit brighter, enhancing the foliage and the brickwork. The sky was painted with a wash of Cerulean blue, introducing some yellow ochre towards the horizon with a few clouds mixing paynes gray with ultramarine and a dash of crimson.

I then worked from the distance to foreground. Sap green and crimson being predominantly used for the foliage, yellow ochre and burnt sienna for the brickwork. The darker accents were added using a mixture of paynes gray and ultramarine.

Very pleased with the finished result.

This is what my customer said:

"...Have kept forgetting to thank you very much for the house painting, safely
received on schedule and now at our local gallery for framing. It is a
lovely piece of work and will give us all a lot of pleasure..."

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Bredons Norton

This house can be found in the village of Bredons Norton, in Worcestershire. After googling this village I found the following words to describe it:

The whole area is an oasis of peace and tranquility, a secret corner of England, where time seems to stand still yet the modern world is not forgotten.

That just about sums it up I think.

The finished painting was altered slightly from the original photograph. A large barn was removed to give a far more appealing background - the benefits of artistic license in action!

Rous Lench

A house in the unusually named Rous Lench. A village in my home county of Worcestershire. The day of my visit was mixed with sunshine and showers. I caught a sunny spell when I took the photo from which I worked for this painting.

The trees in this painting is a good example of how my portrayal of foliage in general has developed. Moving away from attempting to pick out each individual leaf as you would see in a photograph and more towards giving an impression of the foliage by picking out the odd leaf shape against a graded wash of colour.

Church Farm, Kington Langley, Wiltshire

This reminds me of a late summers day in Wiltshire.


It's a wedding venue set in the countryside. Couples who choose this as their wedding venue will have the option of commissioning their own watercolour produced from photographs taken on their wedding day.

I particularly like the way the tent is highlighted by the sun from the right exaggerated by the dark background of the trees. The closing in of autumn is hinted at by the addition of yellow ochre in the tree canopy.

View from the Pond

Graham, who commissioned this painting gave me the option to choose which view of the house to paint. This made a nice change as most people specify exactly which view they want painting which doesn't leave me with much choice on how to represent the subject matter. I chose this view from the pond because even though a lot of the house itself was obscured by the trees, I thought it was more interesting to portray more of the landscape of the garden.

'I commissioned the is painting form my wife's birthday.
She is very difficult to buy for.
This turned out to be a complete success. One of the best presents she has
ever received."

Graham

Late Afternoon Sun

Taking the photo of a subject matter at the right time of day can bit a bit hit a miss. On this occasion, it was late in the afternoon and the sun was in just the right position, casting a warm glow across the back of this house in Berkshire. I wanted to get the effect of long shadows being cast across the lawn from the right and the sharp cantrast between the light and dark shades of green in the foliage. Very pleased with the results here.

Compton

The front and back views of a house in Compton, Berkshire. Painted from a scene during one of the most interesting times of the year with plenty of blossom and colour in the garden.

"Really thrilled with my house portrait - Pete did a great job,
capturing  the atmosphere of both the house and garden.  He
was professional and pleasant throughout and the whole process
went without a hitch.  Looking forward to getting them framed
and on the wall."

Ros Borthwick, Compton

Arborfield House Portrait

These paintings are the front and back of a house in Arborfield.

I ended up at the top of a ladder leaning precariously against a telegraph pole over a ford to get the photograph of the front view.

The rear view was produced from a great photo taken at the point when you get bright sunshine lighting up foreground with very dark gray clouds gathering in the distance.

Gleneagles

This painting was commissioned by Paul and Sue, a couple who's B&B I stayed in during my visit to Marlow. It was painted from a photograph of their son teeing off from the driving range at Gleneagles. What I like about this is the noticeable difference between the strong colours in the foreground and middle distance compared with the far distance landscape.

"So glad Pete chose our B&B as now we have, not only our photo of our
son at Gleneagles, of a special and memorable occasion but also we
have Pete's wonderful painting.  It's FAN-TAS-TIC Pete, THANK YOU."

This painting was modified somewhat from the photograph by shifting the foliage along the left further over to reveal more of the house. The photograph was taken on an unusually hot day in April and I wanted to portray the intensity of the sun light hitting the house by exagerating the shadows in the foliage on the left.

"Excellent delivery service and packaging.  I am very pleased with the painting and can't 
wait to get it framed and on the wall.  I love the way the sun appears to be shining in 
the  picture, the house seems to be bathed in light.
Thank you very much."

Margaret Buntrock, Cobham