Painting Of Trinity Church in Clitheroe –
A Walkthrough The Creative Process

I would like to take you on a journey through the creation of Trinity Church in Clitheroe painting commissioned by a person who has a special connection with the church and wanted to capture this connection in a painting.

The 4 Steps of The Creative Process

This is a demonstration of the artist’s approach to a painting, the search for inspiration and the techniques used during its production.

At the beginning of my creative process, I have set myself to answer these 4 bullet points: intent, content, context and production. Answering these questions proved to be a very useful activity, it created a design brief that helped me to define my goal, set standards for this painting and became a reference point for me and my client.

At the end of this post, you will be able to judge if I have fulfilled the criteria and created a successful painting.

I would really like to know what you think, would you let me know?

The creative brief

Intent – to evoke feelings of peace, love, gratitude and unity with nature and the Universe.
Content – Trinity Methodist Church in Clitheroe
Context – commission for a person who would like to keep a vivid memory of the Church – the place she finds her meaning…
Production – painting in acrylics, inks and gloss paint

6 Steps To Find Inspiration

A Photo Taken With A Drone

The first step I made in creating this piece was taking a shot of the landscape with a drone. You can see this in the very first image; I could roughly see where all the objects were positioned in proportion to each other and how large they should be.

The Sketch

I created a rough sketch of the photo using watercolour pencils, trying to copy its elements. This is our skeleton – it includes all the main buildings and core parts that make the image unique to the place.

Marc Chagall’s Painting

The painting here is called The Trampled Flowers also by Marc Chagall made with a lithograph medium. You can also see something that resembles a church or a cathedral and its shape looks like Trinity Church. Maybe Chagall painted the building already?

Chagall liked to merge colours and shapes. His expressionist art contains slightly distorted images, which I like as you can see how he channelled his own subjective emotions into his work, avoiding monotonous reality.

Marc Chagall – Colour Scheme

The colours used in Chagall’s painting gave me an idea of the colour scheme I would like to use in my painting, (particularly greens and warm yellows).

Stained Glass Window

I was inspired by a beautiful stained glass window at Trinity Church. It is depicting Jesus standing between the sun and the moon. I decided to incorporate some of its elements into my painting; The sky and sun rays in my work have a mosaic effect as they scatter into different shades and shapes, just like stained glass.

Incorporating Stained Glass Window Elements Into My Painting

The final product is applying the stain glass effect to my work. You can see I used this effect, especially on the sky and moon. The sun shining down and scooping the earth also looks like pieces of rounded glass, placed over the painting to provide a different lens of colour.

I have purposely decided to be inconsistent in applying the mosaic effect on the sky and leaving the buildings and trees as more realistic shapes;

By flicking lines of gloss paint of different colours around the trees and buildings, the gloss unites the image binding the background and foreground elements together.

I intended to convey the feelings of unity with nature and the Universe, the thoughts, impulses I felt when looking at the scenery. This change of structure resembles how quickly our mood can change and how easily the world around us can influence the way we feel.

The energy vibrates in the air…

The energy vibrates in the air… Can you sense this energy?

On a summer’s day, you’ll be able to find that energy in all the delightful corners of town touched by the sun. The view from the top of Clitheroe Castle is like a gift on its own. What I was trying to do here is make everything in sight look like that beautiful stained glass window. All the colours you see seeping through a mosaic you can also find outside; the top of Clitheroe Castle is the perfect place for that.

I wanted my painting to be vibrant, notice it has a similar tone and colour to a glorious fiery sunset. The painting is set during midday, but I decided that the streets should have an orange hue to them, embraced by the rays of the guardian.

As well as capturing the beauty of day I tried to include the cooler shades of the night sky, hinted by the moon. The painting depicts the rays of the sun tightly hugging the town regardless of the time of day. Do you feel the energy radiating from this?

My painting was meant to capture peace, happiness and soothing gratitude. It should make you feel like you’re also a minuscule part of a grand painting, which is in constant motion… The sun in my art flows from the star and floods the earth with its warmth.

Like I mentioned before, my work is supposed to stimulate you to feel something. This can be a beautiful feeling of peace, love and gratitude. You may feel touched if the vision of crumbling glass reminds you of passing time. Whatever you feel, I want you to tap into your emotional sphere and try to see deeper than the plain reality exposed at first glance.

So, now you can tell me? How have I done? Have I fulfilled the brief and created a successful painting?