Plein air painting 70

Painted on an early morning day in September 2022, this landscape painting shows the iconic Bargate structure in the city of Southampton. It was originally the entrance to what was then a town and would have had tall walls either side to protect the town from invasion. There are still a number of 'gates' and sections of wall around the city indicating its size at the time. It was built in Norman times and is grade 1 listed. Behind, on the right, a new development is rising which will help to showcase some of the existing wall in that part of the city.

Painted on mounting board sized at 12" x 9.5" in oils.

Southampton City Wall - watercolour sketch

Southampton City Wall - watercolour sketch

This sketch was done on a sunny Sunday morning in early June and shows a part of the remains of the old stone walls that once surrounded the town of Southampton, and date from the 1300's. The road it is on, the Weston Esplanade, would not have been there originally and in fact the sea would have been licking against the wall, while ships would have unloaded valuable cargo. The water colour sketch is 10" x 7" approx and took about an hour.

Southampton medieval wall - water colour sketch