A new painting -“Taxi from Uplands” – 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.
An expressionist “urban folk” oil painting of a gentleman taking “time out” and a hot beverage. The warm orangy-brown and wood and brickwork contrast with the blue, hard surfaces of the road, street and passing cars. The warm, calm and relaxation with the busy, bustling city street scene outside the protecting window. Go phew with a brew.
This is another “urban folk” painting – a style of painting I have been developing recently, expressionist people portraits from real life in the area near me here in Swansea, Wales. I try to catch the pathos of every day life and hope the paintings tell a story to the viewer. Uplands is a busy area in Swansea, full of shops, bars, coffee shops – where one can shop, eat, drink, listen to music, socialize and be merry. I hope I catch the start of that evening bustle is this painting. The cars coming into town, while the older gentleman returns home with his evening supplies and younger people appear to chat in the street. The constant coming and going and intermingling of activity.
Different people doing different things on the same city street.
This is why we love the city, the constant activity and the wide variety of people and characters, always something to catch our eye and imagination.
Latest in the “Pies” series “Still Undecided?”
“This is the third in the “Pies series” after “Before the Rush” and “That Moment of Indecision” which have both sold on Artfinder.
Here our everyman protagonist is joined by the fleeting, shooting looks of a passer-by, also briefly considering whether to to step into the warmth of the “Pies” shop on St Mary’s Street, Cardiff.
At least the passer-by’s brisk walk, and disgusted frown at even having entertained the notion of pies, suggest the exquisite relish and torturous desire will be shorter lived than the gentleman by the window, who has moved his longing gaze from the advertising board to the orange-inviting heat of indoors.”
new oil painting – 80 x 60 cm, £479 – “Night Jacks”
“The title of this expressionist “urban folk” painting takes it’s title from Hopper’s “Night Hawks” – I have “Britished” Hopper’s painting which was set in an American diner by using a British alternative or even equivalent the ever present Fish and Chip shop instead as it seemed appropriate. The second part of the title, Jacks, refers to a name we have here in Swansea for people who come form Swansea.”
Delighted to say I have just SOLD “That Moment of Indecision” via Artfinder – now off to Australia which has become a popular destination for many of my paintings!
A new oil painting, “That Moment of Indecision”
This is an oil painting capturing that should I/shouldn’t I? moment of indecision.
The decision here is whether to have a delicious pie from this excellent PIES shop or to walk on virtuously having not added any more to one’s waistline!
A decision made all the more difficult by the fact it was a chilly crisp winter’s day and the PIES sign was so warm and alluring, almost visually replicating the heat of the freshly warmed pies inside.
The painting’s setting is the exterior of the same PIES shop on St Mary Street in Cardiff which had it’s interior painted in the painting “Before the Rush” which sold a few months back –https://www.artfinder.com/product/before-the-rush-b42b/
Delighted to say I have just SOLD this oil painting “The Long Way Home” via Artfinder – now on it’s way to Ontario, Canada!
This people portrait is intentionally quite poignant as it features an elderly man who seems to be carrying some of his belongings in a plastic shopping bag. It is not clear if he is unkempt in his crumpled rain coat because he i s homeless or has gone beyond caring too much about his appearance. Either way, he looks sad and almost life-beaten.
I wanted to contrast his sad, beaten, forlorn facial expression, and drooped shoulders and shuffling gait with the excitement of others striding off into the distance, either shoppers hurriedly returning home after a successful day’s shopping or employees from these shops doing the same after a hard day’s work.
There is also a frission or juxtaposition between the elderly man’s crumpled slightly smudged coat and dishevelled appearance and the gleaming reflection-clean floor of the shopping mall and the tidy, orderly professional look of the shops.
The elderly man looks like he doesn’t fit in here or even maybe he has no where to go, unlike the others, where he can fit in. It is as if society has locked him out of what others have and perhaps even take for granted.
He seems lonely, and forlorn on his way to wherever he is going, to wherever he calls home?
This people portrait is intentionally quite poignant as it features an elderly man who seems to be carrying some of his belongings in a plastic shopping bag. It is not clear if he is unkempt in his crumpled rain coat because he is homeless or has gone beyond caring too much about his appearance.Either way, he looks sad and almost life-beaten.
I wanted to contrast his sad, beaten, forlorn facial expression, and drooped shoulders and shuffling gait with the excitement of others striding off into the distance, either shoppers hurriedly returning home after a successful day’s shopping or employees from these shops doing the same after a hard day’s work. There is also a frission or juxtaposition between the elderly man’s crumpled slightly smudged coat and dishevelled appearance and the gleaming reflection-clean floor of the shopping mall and the tidy, orderly professional look of the shops.
The elderly man looks like he doesn’t fit in here or even maybe he has no where to go, unlike the others, where he can fit in. It is as if society has locked him out of what others have and perhaps even take for granted.
He seems lonely, and forlorn on his way to wherever he is going, to wherever he calls home?
A new oil painting – “Weighing it Up” – down Cardiff market. This Hopperesque painting is of the fish market at the Hayes entrance to Cardiff Market. I have always loved the glaring artificial light above this fish stall. It creates some lovely colours and a pleasing depth of field. The fishmonger weighs his goods while the customer deliberates on what to have next, hence the tile “Weighing it Up”
