March 19, 2016 – Margaret McCarthy Hunt Art

A detail of a WIP of the Eglise de Ranville. I wish the whole building at turned out as well. As Charles Reid an American Master and my personal watercolor art hero says hit it once and be done!

I got a light hand back when I painted the cemetery.

A bit of history. The cemetery is where the dead from Pegasus Bridge are buried. The church is a lovely old gothic building picked mark with shell holes from the fighting in WW2. RAnville was the first town freed by the Allies during the D Day Invasions.

A slightly whacky perspective. I may redraw this one. Originally I drew it standing inside the cemetery gate on a cold blustery day so of course you don’t get a full view.
I had wanted the old limestone Gothic church much lighter like the tower. I started with light yellow wash over the whole church. I made a mistake using cerulean and burnt sienna to paint a wash of grey. Cerulean is opaque. Eek! Bad choice. It can make a great grey as long as you aren’t too heavy with it.

This sketch of the Pegasus Bridge Museum was going well til for some reason unknown to me I decided to drop a museum visitor into the mix who was as tall as the statue on the left. Huh?! What was I thinking?!

The only way I could think of to save this sketch of an interesting building was to draw a red Pegasus Bridge symbol and glue it over the woman. Not the best sketch but the best solution to the problem.

The top of the building is built like the glider that the Bristish Glider Infantry used to fly behind the Nazi lines in France to capture the Pegasus Bridge in Caen. This battle to control and hold the Bénouville Bridge at Caen France commenced the WW2 Normandy D Day Invasions.

So brave where the British Glider Infantry during the fighting that Bénouville Bridge was renamed Pegasus for the red Pegasus Patch worn by the elite British paratroopers.

Read more about this battle here. The Brostosh dead were buried at nearby Ranville church which I will post tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx