Nick Andrew's process

I paint in the studio, working from a range of sources: sketchbooks, photos, previous paintings and my own visual memories of the subject. This allows me much more freedom in putting together an idea for a painting and capturing transitory effects.

Sometimes I will work out the arrangement of the composition and its format in my sketchbook. But more often, I work out the idea directly onto the canvas. I find the direct approach more exciting as it is also less predictable.

The first few stages are carried out with the canvas on the studio floor. In this way, painting is a much freer and more physical activity!

I wet the canvas thoroughly using a water spray, then transparent colour is flooded rapidly onto the surface using a large decorators’ brush to establish the principle 'blocks' of the painting. I often use oranges, reds and yellows at this stage, which will give underlying warmth to the painting.

I re- wet the canvas and lay down more fluid paint, developing the main forms of the composition. Here I am using a wash of deeper crimson. I encourage some areas to flow more by spraying them with water, so I’m working with a water spray in one hand and a brush in the other!

Using transparent mixes of blues and purples to lay in the shapes of dark trees and woodland at the top of the picture. The broad brushmarks in the lower sections of the painting are to give an idea of the river flow and the shapes of the foreground grasses

Working with transparent colour and allowing the paint to dry after each stage leads to a multi-layered result, where previous layers can be seen showing through

Continuing to build- up transparent layers of colour- using  yellow mixes to provide a good base for the bank- side reeds and grasses.

I like to allow the paint to flow, run and diffuse. Sometimes I use wedges (see illustration) to ‘prop- up’ one side of the canvas to encourage the paint to flow in a particular direction.

I also start to introduce thicker, more opaque paint into the wet surface, producing distinct brush marks, which soften and partially merge into the surrounding paint layer.

Once dry, the canvas goes up on the easel or the wall. Now I can get back and view the painting at a distance so that I can see the composition as a whole.

I still like to work on a damp surface, but tend to use thicker paint applied with smaller decorators’ brushes. The marks produced by these brushes are very directional and full of movement- they seem to capture in paint the gesture of hand and arm.