Camden Conversation

Admittedly my painting style is tight and controlled. For this painting I set out with the intention of 'loosening up'. Now that it's finished, it's only slightly looser than usual but at least I managed to reduce some of the detail. I'm happy enough with the result, anyway. Let me put a load of strong red into any painting and I'm happy!

My wife and I spent a week in London last year. Coming out of the Seven Dials area one afternoon, we wandered into the Borough of Camden. Two young men who looked like students walked by, chatting to each other. I took a snapshot as a London bus passed them, slowing to a stop just ahead. When I finally got a good look at the photo, I felt that I could make a decent composition out of it. I widened the space between the boys and gave the boy on the left a red jacket instead of the tan jacket he had worn in real life. This provided a nice rhythm of red and black shapes across the width of the painting.

Dusk On Princes Street

I reckon this will be the last painting I'll produce for the forthcoming Moments exhibition next month at the Dundas Street Gallery in Edinburgh. It's an Edinburgh cityscape, showing people doing their shopping early one Thursday evening (Thursday being the day for late night shopping in the city). I wanted to catch the bright lights and the energy of the scene as the daylight fades, plus the female figure shown on the video advertising screen at the bus stop.

Moments will feature 60+ paintings by me and my friends Roy McGowan and Colin Joyce. It runs from Saturday 18th to Saturday 25th February 2017. The gallery is easy to find on Dundas Street, which is in the New Town area just a short walk from the city centre.

Walking On Sunshine

This painting is adapted from a photo of a street scene in Glasgow. I took the photo shooting directly into bright sunlight - not a great idea if you want a good image. What I got was an image full of lens flares and weird blobs of colour. I replicated a few of these and eliminated most of them as I was painting, trying for a more realistic feeling, but I particularly wanted to keep the big flare of light in the shop window (top left) which was a challenge to get right.

The title was going to be "Urban Light". Then while I was out driving, with the car radio on, the DJ played that old hit by Katrina and the Waves, "Walking On Sunshine". That sounded like a much better title!

Demo at Cupar Art Club

Recently I gave a watercolour painting demo (demonstration) at Cupar Art Club in the North of Fife. I really enjoyed doing it - they're a great bunch of folk up there in Cupar. The theme was 'painting from photos' and I combined elements of 3 different images of sea and shoreline to produce this demo piece. It's basically a sunset view from Aberlady Bay in East Lothian, looking towards Inchkeith island and the Fife coast. I was trying to create a quiet mood but with a bit of colour to lift it. Not necessarily a painting I'd frame but I'm still fairly pleased with the result.