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| Ludgate Hill - outline sketch, inked up but not painted © Teresa Newham 2011 |
I've come to the conclusion that artists live their lives out of sync. Or maybe it's just me . . . I have a whole list of 'future paintings' slowly coming into being in my head, there's usually a 'current painting' on the go (or at least an initial sketch of it), and once it's finished, to my mind it's done and dusted - old hat - until a few months later when I find myself framing it up for exhibition and watching other people's reactions to it.
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| Ludgate Hill - 'inspirations board' and experimental colour washes © Teresa Newham 2011 |
This has been brought home to me forcibly over the last couple of weeks while I've been painting Ludgate Hill, a view which I'd been intending to capture since I did some London-themed paintings last year. Exactly how to go about it was (as usual) the question, and it wasn't until I emerged from City Thameslink station in a downpour one dingy February morning earlier this year that I had the answer: the lights and reflections of the traffic and shop windows and people.
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| Ludgate Hill - half painted © Teresa Newham 2011 |
What with one thing and another I didn't even get an initial sketch down until March; translating it to something I could paint, adjusting the layout and inking it up brought me to April before any watercolour paint got near it. The net result is a scene of a gloomy, wet, atmospheric day which was actually painted during the hottest April weather I can remember. And next up I'm going to try my hand at some paintings of Venice, which I also visited in February when the weather there was bitterly cold . . . . !
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| Ludgate Hill pen & watercolour wash © Teresa Newham 2011 |
I think this captures the atmosphere of a damp, dark day in the middle of London most beautifully - I especially like the effect on the road and pavement.
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