Town House Spitalfields

This painting took shape in an unusual way: deciding to reuse an old canvas, I painted over it, obscuring what was there, making it ready to start something new. However, when I brushed over the fresh layer of paint, the texture underneath started to show through and small highlights appeared as if they were stars shining. I blocked in the shape of the house quickly as the idea took hold.

Set against the vast night sky, the house becomes an observatory, as the cat looks out into the distance, thinking of time and space.

The Astronomer’s House    (contact us about this work, please include the title)

Oil on canvas, 46 x 36cm

£1,850

 

A thousand stories have been told inside these walls, stories of every kind. Some are remembered for a while; some are never heard at all. The houses witness them all and slowly but surely their fabric starts to fade, worn down by the dramas played out within.

A new chapter will bring a fresh start…

Afternoon in Camden Town    (contact us about this work, please include the title)

Oil on canvas, 51 x 41cm

£2,200

 

 

This painting wasn’t so much planned as took shape before me. I erased an old painting with a few broad brush strokes and as I was doing so a new composition started to emerge. I could see a house in front of what appeared to be a lake or a pond, as dusk took hold. The cat appeared later, most likely looking for food.

Paintings don’t begin like this very often, so when they do it’s always exciting to see where they will go.

The Angler’s House   (contact us about this work, please include the title)

Oil on board, 26 x 20cm

£1,450

 

I’ve painted this part of the Regent’s Canal before, even from this very spot although in a different season. The Canal turns away here from Regent’s Park and on towards Camden Town. It’s a tranquil stretch of water, where time stands still and stucco villas reveal themselves through the mass of greenery.

Regent’s Canal Summer    (contact us about this work, please include the title)

Oil on board, 25.5 x 20.5cm

£975

 

Trying to decide which houses to paint for this exhibition was very similar to composing a painting. I wanted to get the right balance between light and dark, to keep things interesting and surprising. The Gardener’s House is a great counterpoint to some of the more gothic, darker pictures here and the cat is rightly proud of the garden he occupies!

The Gardener’s House       (contact us about this work, please include the title)

Oil on canvas, 51 x 41cm

£Sold

 

Running down the Harringay Ladder, this part of the New River can only be glimpsed over the tall bridges along sideroads. I saw it fleetingly from a train going over one of these bridges and a painting suddenly revealed itself to me as I sped by…

The New River   (contact us about this work, please include the title

oil on board 20 x 15cm

£750

 

It’s not a coincidence that water features prominently in my work. It can add another layer by revealing an alternative point of view with the houses looking back on themselves. Or, as here, it can create an abstract feel that brings the picture to life.

Composition is one of the unseen struggles that makes a picture a success or a failure, by balancing tone and form and creating rhythm. These are the hidden building blocks on which description takes shape and an image starts to emerge.

The Ferryman’s House     (contact us about this work, please include the title)

Oil on canvas, 50 x 40cm

£2,200

 

I set off along Regent’s Canal again, looking from Camden to Regent’s Park this time, where the green of the trees and the water is punctuated by a majestic villa, rising up beside a distant church tower. Its brightness was tempered by the ghostly reflection it cast on the water and it was a moment charged with such atmosphere this time that I had to try and capture it – as the light changed, the moment passed.

 

The White House    (contact us about this work, please include the title)

oil on board, 26 x 20cm

£1,450