And so I begin…
A 30 day blog challenge! And knowing I would need 30 ideas, I decided to make them count. I want to write my next book about my London paintings, so I’ve decided to start with…
A Painting tour of London in 30 days!
By sharing a Statement a day or the story behind each painting, and most of them have stories/statements to be told
As an artist you get used to creating art but you also need Artist Statements. Otherwise they are just pretty pictures. So I thought I’d use the dicipline of the blog challenge to create a series of Statements to create a London guide over 30 days. I’m restricting myself to images of London, to reflect my more recent work.
Starting on a Sunday with Church
The subject of my first post is my Painting
The Life of London Churches.
This was the first painting of this size I painted using this technique. It was quite a traditional subject matter and I was going to use my usual approach with blown ink accross the entire painting.
Two things stopped me.
The first was the Occupy London protest where people were camping outside St Paul’s to protest at social injustice. St Paul’s locked their doors to stop people going inside which goes against everything the Christian Church is supposed to stand for. As a Christian, I was not impressed. I’ve always been uncomfortable with decadent church buildings. Either the building is a church, in which case it should open its doors to all or it is a national monument. The conflict of interest trying to be both does not serve either well.
The second point was the recollection that to the right is the headquarters of the Salvation Army known for their active outreach programmes.
I’ve always maintained that the blown ink technique I use reflects the life force emitting from buildings. In this instance it was lacking. So I painted the white of St Paul’s ostentatious and devoid of life. Whilst the almost invisible Salvation Army building is where vitality reaches out for all to see.
Now where shall we go for Day 2?
Curious to see more London Paintings?
Lovely post and I love the image you’ve shared. I’m not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, I do however look forward to following your 30 day challenge.
Thank you Wendy, your kind words are much appreciated. I cannot comment on your skill but the beauty of Art is that no skill is required to appreciate it.
I really like the effect of the straw blowing Cathy
Thank you Nicola, it’s a lot of fun to do and really improves your breathing!
Hi Cathy,
Great first post, I look forward to reading more. I was completely unaware about artist statements and really enjoyed the insight – so many thanks for broadening my horizons.
Emma
Thank you Emma, glad to have imparted some knowledge!