by paula mitchell
Oil
h: 70 w: 100 d: 1 (cms).
‘Our Beating Heart’ - I visit London frequently as part of my work as an artist, and the excitement I feel when I’m in my own capital city increases with every trip. The scene, at this time of day never fails to take my breath away, it stops me in my tracks. In recent months, I have stood in this place and sketched its skyline, sometimes simply or sometimes with much greater detail. I have spent time looking, learning, understanding times of the day and how the landscape and Thames River below changes under different light conditions. The buzz of London is palpable here. I stand quietly sketching with people walking along the bridge behind me, arriving at the same point and you can hear them gasp. This makes me smile because I am a stranger to them, but we feel a shared excitement. When I work outdoors, I often use earbuds to reduce the noise around me, but it still allows me to hear and sense what is going on. I become more aware of my breathing, my heartbeat and how it slows as I sink into deeper concentration to paint. For me, there is a connection between my love of this view, the way it makes me feel and the changes it brings about in my own physicality when I pause to capture it. The narrow band of light that changes and travels from left to right on Waterloo Bridge illuminates the surface of the Thames River. The light band changes from a warm pink coral to an electric blue and at moving points, it pulses if you look carefully. This work is my favourite London view and the ‘Beating Heart’ of our great capital city. (Please Note: The main image here is unvarnished, the the secondary image being varnished. The second image is a more accurate representation of the lower part of the painting).
£2900 (As exhibited.)
Please Note: If you are overseas and interested in a purchase, please note that there will be additional costs for postage and packaging added to this price. Feel free to enquire about this using the button below.
by paula mitchell
Oil
h: 52 w: 42 d: 1 (cms).
'Walk on Water' - This painting is a studio work up from a 10 x 11 inch plein air piece. The plein air reference took about 1.5 hours and was completed during very bright, mid-morning conditions. I was looking almost right at the sun and with a calm surface on the water, the reflections of the sky and boats from the distance were beautiful. This is very much a 'say what you see' painting because this is precisely the colours my eyes were capturing as I looked into the bright light and shimmering water. I was keen to capture exactly what my eyes were interpreting from the landscape in those conditions, not what my over thinking brain wanted me to paint. The light and colour shifted and flickered, the reflections of the sailboat masts while interrupted at some points by the current, extended all the way to where I was standing on the riverbank. Every so often, the brightest flashes of sunlight would appear in the water right in front of me, this is an aspect of the work I wanted to capture specifically with the energy and direction of my brush marks. On this day my time painting felt good, I was just so happy to be there and had such a fun time. These moments you have to grab with both hands as they make you feel on top of the world. The title of this work refers to this beautiful place, my sense of joy in my work and for a few hours I felt like I could just step out and walk on that water.
£1150 (As exhibited.)
Please Note: If you are overseas and interested in a purchase, please note that there will be additional costs for postage and packaging added to this price. Feel free to enquire about this using the button below.