Cityscape Demonstration in oils with plein air tips
Friday 19th July 2024
Frimley & Camberley Society of Arts was delighted to welcome Tushar Sabale to demonstrate live to us in oils. He is an award winning British artist who was born in India and has lived in London for the past 18 years. One of his passions is painting ‘en plein air’ and he is to be found every first Saturday of the month together with other members of the London Plein Air Group that he co-founded painting scenes of London. Tonight he is going to paint from a reference photo of a scene he has already painted ‘en plein air’.
This photo was taken at the Patchings Art Festival in Nottingham last week. Tushar has only just returned from this year’s art festival where he was doing a 40 minute demonstration on each day of the festival. The photo shows his purpose built trestle stand very clearly. He had it made especially for himself rather than using an easel. He likes to paint on MDF board and this evening it is an ‘up-cycled’ one as it has already got a painting on it which he will over paint.
The reference photograph is of St. Mary’s Church near Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. He told us an amusing story of how when he was painting this scene in situ a group of school children passed him having been to the National Gallery and some, thinking he was a struggling artist, gave him money. The first thing to decide when painting a cityscape is what to paint. Tushar chose this scene partly because he has a degree in architecture so that appeals. It is also a recognisable location in London. There is a lot of information in a photograph which can be a hindrance. When it comes to what to paint first, Tushar quoted Ken Howard who recommended “paint the things that are going to move first”. The weather changes quickly, shadows, the sky and the clouds will be different very quickly.
Tushar uses a marker pen to sketch the scene. He seems unperturbed by the underpainting already on the board. When he has carefully sketched out the main features of the painting he will start with the sky. He likes to create a sense of temperature. The elements help to make London distinctly London and not India or Italy. He use Ultra Marine, Cobalt and White with a tiny amount of Yellow Ochre. This will give the impression of a nice summer sky. He uses blues and Magenta to create the deep shadows. The first layers are usually applied thinly.
The palette he uses is glass which is easily cleaned up at the end of the day after being used. The exact viscosity of the paint is hard to describe. It is a question of judgement. He uses Linseed Oil and Zest It to thin the paint and clean his brush. He is painting with a No.10 flat brush and to start with he is painting shapes. The camera can often help with framing a scene and composing the painting. He has decided not to include the car that was in the foreground of the photo. He also noted that the colours in the photo are cooler than it was in reality. He wants to create the sense of a summer’s day.
If an artist is new to painting city scapes Tushar’s advice is to KISS – Keep It Simple! He highly recommends keeping the painting itself small. It is simply not possible to paint a large oil painting in a limited period of time. It is fine to make mistakes. It is best to make small studies and do not pressurise yourself to create a masterpiece. Practice, practice, practice. It is a good idea to have the colours you will need to hand. Tushar uses a variety of paints from fairly standard white which will be used a lot to Michael Harding paints that are expensive for certain colours. It is a good idea to travel light and to use small tubes for painting ‘en plein air’.
When it comes to preparing the board to be painted on some artists use pinks, oranges or siennas but Tushar prefers a light grey. He uses Gesso to prime it but it is never a good idea to paint on white as it interferes with the process. The white Gesso can be coloured with acrylic paint. When painting the Corinthian columns he is always looking at the colour and the way the light is creating shadows, this is what makes a painting three dimensional. When it comes to painting the trees he uses Sap Green with Viridian together with some blue and even some black. He is not deterred from using black. He wants to emphasise the temperature and the shade of green will indicate this. The trees are very typical of London, they are called London plane trees. Getting the shape right is important to help give a sense of place.
Towards the end of the demonstration Tushar decided to put in some details. He adds the lamp posts and traffic light taking care to check the vanishing point in the painting. He also adds some people as London is full of people. He was asked why he paints in oils rather than acrylics and he gave two reasons. Firstly, acrylics dry too quickly especially when painting outdoors and secondly oil is a very traditional medium. He was asked if he would add a red London bus to give a sense of place and he said that he had painted lots of London buses but on this occasion he put in a yellow vehicle and concentrated on the figures in the foreground.
The figures made a dramatic addition to the painting. They were painted in a mixture of dark colours, browns and black with white highlights for those walking in the sunlight. Tushar explained that as a child he used to do Memory Drawings at school and he even won a National Award in India when he was 12 when he won first prize in a Drawing Competition amongst 1 million children in India for his painting of a grandmother surrounded by her children. Memory drawing is very good for developing the observation skills used in painting figures.
Tushar was asked if he would frame his painting and he had no hesitation in saying he always frames his paintings, usually with a plain, simple frame. Oil paintings do not need to be under glass but they should be varnished. He uses Michael Harding Dammar satin finish varnish. It is worth the extra expense of using a good quality varnish.
The audience was very appreciative of all the tips and advice given during the course of this demonstration. Tushar Sabale said he is an elected member of the prestigious Wapping Group of Artists which was established in 1946 and only has 25 members. The group meets from April to September at selected locations along the river Thames to capture the changing face of London over the years.
Please see his website for more details about the groups he belongs to and his paintings.
Craig Whitehead gave sincere thanks to a very talent artist for coming to Frimley & Camberley Society of Arts to share his skills and experience. It was greatly appreciated.
Write up by Carole Head
One reply on “Tushar Sabale”
Excellent demo. Very interesting and amusing. Lovely to see such a well attended evening.