Why the fascination with trams?
Trams and trains appeal to the inner child. If you’ve ever read or watched the Railway Children, you’ll be aware of the appeal. So when they reintroduced trams to Manchester, I was keen to include them in my work.
This painting is called City Reflections
The sun was on the building behind the tram creating a sheet of light. Here it is after the first paint is on.
Here’s a closer look at the tram.
And now the tram with a bit more paint on.
And the background with the people.
There followed a lot more painting before the masking was removed.
At which point I realised the reflections on the building behind the tram weren’t right.
When this happens I usually prop the picture up and leave it for a while. The way I work means I never know what I’ll get until the masking is removed. It’s not unusual for me to be disappointed with the results. Experience has taught me to hold fire before attempting to correct work which hasn’t done what I was expecting. I often find with time, I’m happy with the result.
Not this time.
This was a rare occasion when I felt the need to re-mask and paint some more. A tricky endeavor as blending new painting with old is very difficult using this technique. I ended up using a brush, which is totally against how I usually work. After some tweaking I eventually got the result I wanted.
Here is the finished painting.
If you want to see the original it’s at Artzu Gallery in Manchester.