Category: Urban Art

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Still Time

 

Oil painting of elderly Swansea man
Still Time – SOLD

Delighted to have Sold “Still Life” via Artfinder a day after adding to my store! Going to the USA! ‪#‎artfinder‬ ‪#‎swansea‬

“A jaunty elderly man, all dressed and booted on his way to the shops in Uplands, Swansea.
I loved his cheerful sense of purpose and his 1970s sunglasses, that slightly look at odds with the rest of his clothing.
The title of the painting has a double meaning as in still time to get to the shop and a moment of time frozen in time, made still. Still time.

 

This is a signature type of painting for me – painting people walking around in their everyday lives. Painting moods, anticipations and atmospheres. Creating presence and pathos.

“Emma’s paintings are lively and capture the fleeting moments of day and night in the Swansea streets. A very strong visual impact is derived from bold blocks of colours and an expressive palette that is widely used in modern art and pop art. The cinematic compositions and dramatic use of light and dark in her artworks, particularly in those night scenes where I observe some tranquility and alienation in a busy city, almost draw a subtle connection to the pieces of Edward Hopper.

I particularly like the figurative works which I think capture the everyday nuances of normal people going about their daily life”

Rise Art – Insiders Review

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Rise Art

Just received a very positive and instructive feedback from some Insiders at Rise Art – concentrate more on these figurative people paintings seems to the main point!

Happed Up

“Emma’s paintings paintings are lively and capture the fleeting moments of day and night in the Swansea streets. A very strong visual impact is derived from bold blocks of colours and an expressive palette that is widely used in modern art and pop art. The cinematic compositions and dramatic use of light and dark in her artworks, particularly in those night scenes where I observe some tranquility and alienation in a busy city, almost draw a subtle connection to the pieces of Edward Hopper.

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Her depiction of pedestrians and streets of Swansea in rain creates an enigmatic atmosphere which tempts the viewers for more and her ‘refractionist’ style is eye-catching. I particularly like the figurative works which I think capture the everyday nuances of normal people going about their daily life”
Rise Art – Insiders Review

 

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See more people painting for sale here

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Cross Town Traffic

New York Painting by Emma Cownie

This is the second in a series of urbanscapes in which I paint cities other than my home city of Swansea. Here we start with the first painting of a busy street in New York There will be urban cityscapes to follow of London and more of New York, among others. I love the brash, invigorating colours of New York streets, how they demand to be seen, noticed and paid attention to. The fluorescent and neon sign lights from banks of advertisements blend with a river of colour, awash in the rain soaked streets below. I love how the orange yellow taxi wheels spin up grey-green spray as they tear up the streets. How the garish orange-pinks compliment the deep greens, bible blacks and devil reds on the wet roads.

All the colours seem visually orchestrated by the elements and the street bustle in a chromatic symphony. Chaotic but in continual synchronicity.

Contemporary oil painting of New York Traffic
Cross Town Traffic (SOLD)

 

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Towards Radisson Blu

“Towards Radisson Blu”

This is the first of a series of urbanscapes in which I paint cities other than my home city of Swansea. Here we start with a city close to me, Cardiff. There will be urban cityscapes to follow of London and New York, among others. This is a painting of Bute Terrace in Cardiff with two imposing hotels, including Radisson Blu, in the distance.
I love how the mingling glare of white car headlights and the blaring red of brake lights evokes a sense of busy movement and traffic jams. One of the most common signature sights of the city.

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Freedom of the Road

“Freedom of the Road” which takes it’s ironic title from the taxi in the painting parked in the wrong side of the road and pointing the wrong direction as if it had freedom of the road. This painting is  80 x 60cm

 

Contemporary Oil painting of Night time Urban scene
Freedom of the Road (SOLD)

This painting is a bigger version of a recently sold oil painting “Taxi from Uplands” but from a more distant view point, to include more of the atmospheric, rain soaked road. An evocative night time oil painting of Uplands, an inner city area in Swansea with a taxi parked, facing the wrong way, in the middle of the road. It’s main dipped head light blares white down the shiny jet black road and intermingles with back-light reds and street-light amber and LED silvery white. They all seem to wash and stream down the wet city road with the rain.

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The Driving Rain

“The Driving Rain” oil, 100 x 80cm, which has now sold to an artlover in Australia, was also part of my Noah’s Yard exhibition in December 2015.

An expressive oil painting of a fast car speeding through the torrential rain and sliding waves of water down the road of Uplands, Swansea. I love all the colours in this image, reflected in the shiny roads and gushing water, falling specks of rain and blaring car lights. Night is so colourful although one would not really expect it to be. This is what I attempt to catch in this night time paintings.

Contemporary Night time scene of rainy road
The Driving Rain (SOLD)
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Backstage at Noah’s Yard

Let’s catch up…in the next days and weeks I will be posting on some of what I have been doing in the last few months of my blogsite inactivity…

The following painting, now sold, was painted for Noah’s yard solo exhibition in December 2015. Back Stage  At Noah’s Yard.

“This expressionist oil painting has taken some inspiration from Degas and his paintings from the perspective of being back stage, waiting in the wings and observing the performers, usually dancers in his case, onstage.
The question here is who is onstage? The musicians in the far distance? The people being served drinks who out to play for the evening or the lovely barmaid serving the drinks? And who is backstage for that matter? The barmaid again or the creator of this image or you, looking at this created image?Perhaps we are all backstage and onstage as someone was no doubt “backstage” watching me catch all this too?

Back Stage at Noah's
Back Stage at Noah’s
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A Bar At Noah’s Yard

“A Bar at Noah’s Yard” – a centre piece painting, painted especially for my art exhibition in Noah’s yard in two weeks time!

This painting of a well known bar in Uplands Swansea called Noah’s Yard, is modeled on the famous Manet painting “A Bar at the Folies-Bergère” but with two differences. The scene is now down town Swansea and the work is expressionist not impressionist. I love the use of expressionism in urban scenes as it can seem more vivid and dynamic, muscular and rhythmic, more funky even.

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Bar at Noah’s Yard (SOLD)

Click here to buy prints

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Steam and a Pop-Up!

 

A new oil painting – “At the Back Of Steam” – an expressionist painting of the serving area at the rear of the “Steam” coffee shop in Uplands Swansea.

I will exhibiting at Steam in a solo pop-up art exhibition from the 4th to 6th December!

More details here – https://www.facebook.com/events/853733791409656/

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That Friday Night Blur

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Friday Night Blur

A new oil painting – “Friday Night Blur” – This expressionist oil painting catches three University students on the their way to some Friday night revelry. It is at some street traffic lights and as I went to take a photograph of them, the traffic light changed to green and they were off, as if on starter’s orders, half running across the street, as if they had no time to lose.

Their mutual excitement propelling them on. There was their sudden movement as the lights changed and this blurred the background as they hurried off. I like the blurred affect which trailed off behind them as it caught the excitement of a Friday night out on the town, on their way to ensuring the night would end up as a Friday night blur.  I love the amber street light spilling across the road, and the intense bright white light in the distance, beckoning them three students onwards to good times.