London Cockspur St bus stop - oil painting

London Cockspur St bus stop - oil painting

Finished oil painting of a bus stop at Cockspur st, central London.

Two buses are shown parked at a bus stop in Cockspur Street, central London during a wet summers afternoon. Both buses have terminated at the stop and a number of tourists are planning their next move, which may well be a visit to Trafalgar Square. This famous Square is very close by and Nelsons column, situated within it, can be seen in the painting. Two passing police with bright safety jackets make a distinctive pair within the crowd. There are a number of big buildings in the street and behind the buses can be seen parts of Canada House. The street is also quite old, going as far back as the 16^th century. The damp conditions of the day add interest with the scene being reflected ion the wet paving surfaces.

This landscape painting was done during July 2019. It measures 33” x 23” approximately, and oil paint was used on acid free mounting board. It can be seen in greater detail by following this link.

Bus queue in the rain

BUS QUEUE IN THE RAIN

This is an older painting of mine, done in Photoshop during 2006. It is quite cartoony, with the characters having black spots for the eyes rather than fully painted ones. There is quite a lot of dark humour in this image, particually with the cat right in front of the bus wheel, about to be run over. Also in the fact that the woman is in difficulties and her plastic shopping bag has split, with some of the contents spilling out. A surreal touch is the monkey on the top deck. I did wonder about giving the bus a 'disapproving' face, but the headlights seem to work as eyes anyway!
I was thinking of 'Reg Varney', from TV's 'On the Buses' when drawing the bus driver.

from the website...

This was digitally painted in 2008 in photoshop at 10"x8" size. The scene depicts a rainy, depressing day in the UK with various accidents awaiting to happen, like the shopping bag about to break or the cat about to be run over. The bus driver is sitting smoking a cigarette, and could not care less. The monkey adds a bit of surrealism. The rain and the reflections were fun to explore and the red double decker bus is not a london bus but a made up one. It could be argued that the headlights on the bus are eyes! The crinkled destination blind and number in the wrong place are something that I am reminded of when I think of these old types of buses.