Building Construction Painting

Sometimes, an unusual commission pops up and it is very exciting to work on something different. I completed this painting a couple of weeks ago for a client in county Limerick. The painting is of a building site and there is a lot of building materials and both finished and unfinished structures. There is a figure of a builder in the foreground making his way through the site. To the side is an almost finished building and towards the back is a finished extension and the original house. The client asked me to remove the scaffolding to the back of the painting and to adjust the colour of the original building to match the new extension. Otherwise the painting was painted as is in the reference photo and the client was very happy with the finished painting.

The photo worked on a long portrait format of 60 x 30 cm in size. I worked with acrylics on stretched canvas as usual. First I sketched out the scene in a watered-down mixture of yellow ochre and venetian red. When I was happy with the sketch, I put down all the basic colours which were then worked over in a number of layers of paint. I worked in a loose way especially in the foreground, which created an interesting contrast with the straight lines and flat colour of the buildings.

• 

• 

• 

• 

•