Charles Mahoney

Technique and condition

The painting is executed in oil paint on a commercially white, oil primed, stretched linen canvas.

The careful initial drawing in graphite pencil remains visible around several of the forms, e.g. the central white chimney. The oil paint was applied in a moderately stiff consistency retaining the brushmarks of the small 5mm/¬ hog filberts used. The shapes were painted with carefully mixed colours there being little overpainting during the initial phase of painting apart from the superimposition of parts of the trees. The initial phase of painting was scraped and rubbed down by the artist after it had dried and the painting reworked in many areas of the sky and foreground only the buildings being largely unretouched. The wall, path and vegetation have been left by the artist in this scraped down state with only minimal indications of reworking in the form of large bold brushstrokes on the wall establishing colours for the wall and adjacent vegetation.

The work is in generally good condition. It was surface cleaned, minor damages restored on acquisition and refitted into its existing glazed frame.

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