Cley Windmill - Recipe for a Painting

Mary Kemp -  Cley Windmill.

This picture of Cley Windmill in Norfolk is almost finished. In fact I can't think what else to do to it so it must be finished.

Here's the recipe:

• Two quick drawings to get the feel of the place.
• Photos for accuracy.
• 30 x 30 cm canvas on MDF ( Courtesy of Great Art)
• Acrylic paint, burnt siena, Venetian red and ultramarine violet.
• Tile for mixing acrylic.
• Water.
• Acrylic brushes and one fine sable (artificial equivalent) watercolour brush for drawing outline.
• Oil paints, titanium white, buff titanium, Naples yellow, raw siena, burnt siena, raw umber, yellow ochre, cadmium red, cadmium yellow, ultramarine violet, cobalt blue, cerulean blue.
• Disposable palette.
• Odourless turpentine.
• Brushes for oil paints , some bristle but I prefer pro art acrylic brushes, size 0 to 14.
• Palette knives for mixing.
• Lots of rags for cleaning up. Old tea towels are best.

Method:

I draw a rough outline of the image with the raw umber acrylic and then put on a wash of ultramarine violet and Venetian red acrylic.

After it's dried I get stuck in blocking in the main colours with the oil paints, making sure the tones work and paying special attention to the main feature, the windmill.

It's then a question of painting your way through the picture until it reaches where you want it to be.

Sounds quick and easy. I've struggled with elements of it, particularly the boats, but I wanted to show how much the windmill is part of the landscape.