Plein air painting 144 4th july park isaac watts

Plein air painting 144 

Dominating the scene is the statue of Isaac Watts as installed at Watts park in central Southampton. He was an English Congregational minister, hymn writer, theologian, and logician, born in the town in 1674. Painted during the morning of the 4th July 2024 on mounting board sized at 12 x 9.5", in oils, with a number of people dropping by to see what I was doing, including someone who had seen me in the past, but in a different location.

Plein air painting 138 09 queensway

Plein air painting 138

One Sunday morning this 'wide' view of Queensway was produced, looking down to Bernard Street. The easel was positioned near to the turning for East Street. It often seems good to paint the cars in first as invariably they will move or have others parked in front.
Painted in oil paint on mounting board, cut to 14 x 7.5" during the 9th June 2024, a sunny summers morning.

Plein air painting 133 central hall

Plein air painting 133

This distinctive building is the Central Hall, built in 1925 as a Methodist church, later becoming a part Hampshire Education Authority during the 1960's, and since the 1990's has been owned by the New Community Church. It resides along Kingsway, Southampton. The roadway outside the building was risen a number of decades ago for a redeveloped traffic junction which visually 'eats' in to the base of the Hall. In the background can be seen 'Dukes Keep'.
Painted in oils on mounting board cut to 12 x 9.5", one Monday morning, 3rd June 2024.

Plein air painting 130

Plein air painting 130 Debenhams roof

As the Debenhams building, featured on a number of previous posts is so large, it offers other views to be captured. This 'wide' painting, the first done in this format, shows the roof of the single storey café area from a building over-looking it in East Street.
Painted in oils on a Monday morning (20/05/24). The mounting board its done on is sized at 14 x 7.5".

Plein air painting 128

This street view from within Southampton shows East Street looking towards the High Street, with Queensway cutting across the view. On the right side can be seen the empty Debenhams building, opened in 1959 (as Edwin Jones) and shut since 2020. The crane is deployed on the Bargate building project which can be seen rising behind the hoardings.
Painted on a Sunday morning (12/05/24) in oils on cardboard, sized at 12 x 9.5".

Plein air painting 124    

One Sunday morning (21st April) was spent standing in Houndwell park, looking across to a number of large cranes being used in conjunction with the Bargate development, having been stalled until recently. It was a sunny morning and Palmerston road is seen cutting across the composition. On the left behind the large trees is the vacated Debenhams departmental store.
Painted on cardboard sized at 12 x 9.5", in oils.

Plein air painting 122 13 april Houndwell place juct with St Mary's place

Plein air painting 122 

Painted on the 13th April 2024 this view shows a typically unremarkable view of a road junction between Houndwell place and St Mary's place, Southampton. Capella house (flats) is dominant with St Marys church spire in the background.
Done in oils on cardboard sized at 12 x 9.5".

 Plein air painting 64

Onslow road, Southampton is shown in this plein air painting, done on a hot afternoon in August 2022. The terrace houses to the left are on Rockstone lane, the small road linked to the main one. The road itself is at a downward angle as it runs in to Bevois Valley. Dominating the view is the Sikh Temple, a Victorian building converted for such use in 1970.

Painted on mounting board sized at 12" x 9.5", with oil paint.

Plein air painting 61

The civic centre in Southampton is featured in this plein air painting, done early one Sunday morning in late August. Shown is the south facing side of this grade II listed building, built between 1929- 39. It was designed by Ernest Berry Webber. The road in front is Civic Center Rd. 
Painted in oils on mounting board sized at 12" x 9.5".

Plein air painting 60

A very early morning view in late August, from the city of Southampton, UK, shows an area known as Bevois Valley. Here the viewer is on the mount looking down the valley. In the far distance can be seen the city, outside of the valley. The suburb of Portswood would be behind the viewer a short distance away. The area apparently gains its name from a folk lore hero called Bevis of Hampton and his giant companion Ascapart.

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

Plein air painting 57

Within the area of Northam, a suburb of Southampton UK are two old gas holders. One was built in 1935 and the other, shown here in this painting, was built in 1909. It has a pretty decorative lattice structure and holds the actual collapsible tank, build in three sections which varies in size depending on how much gas is stored in it. A full tank would mean the top of the tank would fill the volume of the structure. The gas holders are seen in many old photographs of the area mainly as they were amongst the largest buildings in the area.
They have not been in used for ten years and were listed as an important part of the area's industrial heritage. However, at the time this painting was done, demolition had begun so it seems that the gas holders had been removed from the registry and will be replaced by flats.

The main road running left to right is Northam road. Britannia road starts at the traffic light junction and runs in to the distance where the Itchen bridge can be seen right in the distance.

Painted in oils on mounting board, sized at 12" x 9.5" during one early Sunday morning during August 2022.

Plein air painting 46

A row of Georgian shops in Oxford Street, Southampton on the Southern coast of the UK features in this painting. It is painted (plein air) in oils on mounting board sized at 12" x 9.5". and painted one afternoon much to the interest of passers-by. The current shops are leased by more 'upmarket' traders.

Plein air painting 29 

The river Itchen is shown in this painting, done during July 2021 during a very hot afternoon. It is in the up direction and would lead you to Winchester, about 12 miles away. The park that it is seen from is known as Bitterne Manor park, on the outskirts of the city of Southampton and is the site of an original roman settlement. The blue horizontal line on the right hand side is the railway bridge that goes across the river, partly hidden by many boats moored in a small marina and links Bitterne station with St Denys station, on the other side of the river. Painted on mounting board sized at 12" x 9.5".

Plein air painting 26 

Northam road, within central Southampton is captured in this plein air painting, created one early Saturday morning in June 2021. The viewer is looking west toward the city centre and two notable landmarks are visible, with the flats known as Albion Towers in the centre of the horizon and one of two large Victorian gas holders, now empty on the left hand side of the composition. A set of traffic lights are on either side of a pedestrian crossing.

 Plein air painting 23

Harbour House is a Grade II-listed building in the Quay area of Southampton City. It was built in 1925 and housed the harbourmaster’s office for the port of Southampton until the post was finally abolished in the late 1960s. It has over the years been used as casino and nightclub but has been empty since 2015. The painting was done one sunny early morning in June 2021. It is painted in oils on mounting board, sized at 11.5" x 9.52. 

The year before I painted this scene which is the direct opposite to the view painted here.

Working on closeup 74

Working on closeup 74

A small snippet of a Southampton park landscape painting...

Bishopsgate London - oil painting

Bishopsgate London - oil painting

London, Bishopsgate finishd oil painting

Painted in May 2019, a busy view of Bishopsgate is shown. This is a main road on the edge of financial district of the city of London, and Liverpool Street station is seconds away on the right hand side of the street. A number of pedestrians can be seen to be crossing the road which appears to be full buses. It is a sunny day so plenty of shadows are cast on the ground. Interestingly light is being bounced around by some of the large glass fronted buildings so further shadows are cast leading to quite complex patterns on the road. The skyline is dominated by tall buildings so unusually there is no sky visible in the London landscape view.

This landscape oil painting is done on mounting board, with an area of 33” x 24”.

A clearer view of the painting can be seen here on this external site.

 

London National Gallery in the winter - WIP stages

London National Gallery in the winter - WIP stages

London's National Gallery landscape painting WIP

Shown above are four panels demonstrating development of an oil painting. The subject is a view of the National Gallery, London, situated in Trafalgar Square. In the first panel can be seen the line drawing, done with acrylic paint on a coloured ground. White acrylic paint is used to show areas of highlights/ high tones. The second panel features the basic underpainting colours applied to the painting, which give a basic tonal and colour representation of the subjects, although kept to the darker tones overall. In the third panel the final layer of paint is applied, this time thickly than before and with the correct colour and tonal balance. Also detail is painted in at this stage. Finally, the last panel shows the completed painting, which measures 44” x 37”.

It can be viewed at full detail on this link.

Working on closeup 56

Working on closeup 56

A snippet of a London street based oil painting...

Winter shopping season Southampton - oil painting

Winter shopping season Southampton - oil painting

Winter shopping season Southampton - 24" 36" oil painting

During very early 2018, the important Southampton City Art Gallery held an open exhibition where the theme was 'the seasons'. I created 3 oil paintings for this exhibition which were exhibited, and the one featuring in this post also won the competition beating over 500 other entries.

It shows a miserable, winters day in the middle of the shopping zone of Southampton City. It has been raining and members of the public have only the thoughts of shopping on their minds as they use the road crossing. One of the main features of the painting is the wet surfaces and puddles, that adds lots of visual interest to the scene in the form of reflections and damp surfaces.

The painting is done in oils on a canvas sized at 24” x 36”, and took approx 4 weeks to paint, during December 2017.
Details and pictures of the exhibition can be seen here.
The painting can be seen at a larger scale on this link.