Tushar Sabale
9th November 2024
Tushar Sabale had sketched out the scene in pencil on his board in the time waiting for the meeting to begin. He explained it was a familiar scene, one he had painted before, of Lower Regent Street in London, looking up towards Piccadilly. He had his reference photo alongside him on an ipad.
Tushar began by talking about his materials and tools and that he uses these when he paints 'plein air' as well as in the studio. He paints in oils and has all his colours ready on the palette before he starts to paint. He mainly uses a range of flat brushes and just one round size 8.
When painting outside, he recommends painting things that are going to move first, like the clouds and shadows and he worked in a similar way from his photo. He put in the main shadow areas with a blue/magenta mix, then starting adding the lights. At this stage, he was blocking in the structure of things, and not putting in any detail. It was interesting him use the handle of the brush to lay out his perspective lines from the vanishing point. When it is time to start adding detail, he said think about where the focus of the painting will be and put more emphasis there - in this case it was the buildings on the right and the statue. He quickly and expertly placed the figures by the statue, using a number 2 brush.
After the break Tushar continued to build up the scene, adjusting the darks and lights and adding more detail. For the statue of the horse and rider (Edward VII I have now found out), he suggested thinking just about the shapes. It was fascinating watching the shape of the figure and horse emerge from his brush - and so effectively! He again used the brush handle to align the posts along the edge of the pavement, with the vanishing point. This helped to lead the eye into the picture. Tushar said he enjoys putting in the yellow lines on the road and finally a little dab of red in the distance was a London bus!
This was an excellent demonstration of painting a cityscape in oils and in the break and afterwards, Tushar was surrounded by people keen to gain further knowledge.
