"Sky over Wakehurst"
In my classes, I'm always saying that unless your painting is "about the sky" ; then the sky should be played down so it does not overwhelm the whole piece.
This amazing country house is in West Sussex, south of London, and as in most all the rest of the UK, has some of the most incredible skies you could ever hope to see. This painting was meant to be a tribute to some of those skies . So, since this painting was largely about an imagined sky formed of many memories; it was allowed to be the "star" of this show. The portions of the paper that are purely saved whites are only in the sky, portions of the house itself, and it's reflection in the lake - for visual connection and expressive emphasis.
And so I gave the sky center stage - with everything else in the painting being an important part of the "supporting cast"
"Sky over Wakehurst"
Thomas W Schaller - Watercolor
24x18 Inches 05 April 2015
Wakehurst Place is a National Trust property and is an incredible 16th century Elizabethan country house in West Sussex England, just south of London. But the astonishing 500 acres of gardens in which the house is set are largely from the 20th century . They are managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
