Tower Bridge Poppies – Original Painting

Tower Bridge Poppies – Original Painting

About the Image

Tower Bridge takes centre stage, high, towering over the scene below. These poppies creating a red swathe that cries out for attention. “Sea of red and blood swept, tears” the installation of 10,000 poppies by Paul Cummings and Tom Piper. A memorial to the 10 million lives lost during the First World War. It dominates the scene and date to the piece as well.

I always look at Tower Bridge and think it’s as old as the Tower of London itself, on the right. You can see the outer wall along the right of the painting. A thousand years of history, represented by one building. Tower Bridge is a mere child at a century and a half. It’s not even stone, the cladding covers an iron structure, which was state of the art for its time. Seeing the bridge, open is always a source of delight. The railings and row of streetlights on the left, indicate the line of the road that takes cars over the bridge and across the River Thames. We can see neither road, nor river traffic here. Although with a little imagination, we might hear the sounds of cars, buses and boats.

Creation: The image was initially drawn with pencil onto canvas treated with watercolour ground. These lines were then drawn over using masking fluid and then painted using watercolour paint and acrylic ink. Salt was also used in the process and some of the ink blown around using a straw. Once the painting was dry the masking fluid was removed to reveal the finished painting. Which has been sprayed with matt varnish to protect the image.