Church at St Remy sur Lidoire

Many painter friends ask me how I manage to keep my dark shadow shapes so clean and crisp in bright sunshine scenes. When you look at Church at St Remy sur Lidoire, you can see how light and shadow work together to create real impact. Bright sunshine creates strong contrast on old stone walls and dusty gravel paths. Instead of painting every small detail on the building, I focus on big simple shapes first. This helps the bright sunny mood feel light and easy.

For the deep shadows hanging across the foreground and under the tree leaves, I used a warm wash of cobalt blue mixed with neutral tint and a touch of burnt sienna. Notice how the warm yellow ochre on the church wall makes the cool shadow on the right side stand out. The bright green leaves on the sunlit tree were painted with spring green and cadmium yellow. Keeping these colours clear and fresh stops the painting from looking muddy.

Small figures walking down the path give this scene a sense of life and scale. I added light red and cobalt blue for their clothing, keeping their shapes simple with quick brush strokes. A few touches of white paint on the dark background bring out fine details in the bright leaves. Painting like this allows the watercolour paper to do the hard work for you.