When the sun is as strong as it has been over the past few weeks the brightness of shadows and the contrast of other objects, always seems to intensify. And this is exactly what happened in this scene in my garden. The cast shadows of the two chairs were fantastic, as real as the chairs themselves. Then of course that made the paving slabs look so light in contrast.

These were nice shapes to work to and you will see this painting is full of different patterns: the pattern of the chair strings, the pattern of the patio, the pattern of the aged brick wall and the pattern of the fencing.

I worked this light to dark, painting in the chairs first. It was quite easy to work around these shapes, use a large brush to work around shapes, learners often think they should use small brushes, but the opposite is true.

One of the great pleasures of painting is the colours you can make. I mixed up a variety of light shades for the patio slabs to create the contrast needed for the heavy colour of the shadows and the bright colour of the chairs.