Welschap

Created for my parents-in-law.

Story

My parents-in-law played at this golf course for many years until it was unfortunately closed. Just before it was closed I went out on the golf course and took photos of this hole. I liked how it included the clubhouse which was interesting to paint.

My husband is in the foreground, and my parents-in-law are on the righthand side in the middle ground. Additionally I placed an extra golf ball on the green to represent my golf ball, as we have played this hole together as a foursome in the past. This is a happy memory for me, so it was nice to weave the detail of this shared experience in to the painting.

Technical

One of my objectives for this piece was to avoid it looking too green. This is because I do find green a challenging colour to work with, and I've noticed that many paintings of golf can be overwhelmed by the green which can make it harder to appreciate other aspects of the work.

I therefore went for an autumn setting where I could introduce more oranges and browns in to the piece to help offset the green. Overall I was happy with this choice, and think I could have pushed this idea even further.

I'm happy with the birch tree on the left. There was many interesting colours on the tree when I saw it in reality so I tried to incorporate lots of colours in to it.

A compositional aspect I was happy with, was that I adjusted reality with how the foreground appears. In reality it continues straight for longer, but I adjusted this in be a curve instead. This helps to create a more flowing composition where the eye is guided through the painting, like with a snaking river.