Urban Landscapes
I Heart Portobello
Portobello is my hometown and it is where I grew up - painting this picture started as a bit of chore due to the nagging of my dad (this painting was his idea), but it eventually became a labour of love and it is a painting I am very proud of. The image contains some of the central elements of my childhood: the red sandstone tenement where I lived with my parents and two brothers, the local swimming pool where I frequently came close to drowning myself through my childish antics, the houses my friends lived in as well as the beach where I spent so much of my time.
Dunfermline High Street
This painting shows part of the historic city centre of Dunfermline, looking up Bridge Street towards the High Street. As Scotland’s ancient capital, Dunfermline has always been an important local centre and this is well reflected in the beautiful architecture of the old town, the best example of which is the palace like City Chambers. This painting was challenging to paint, but very rewarding by the end and I am very proud of it!
Krakow
I painted this picture of Krakow’s historic medieval centre as a commission and it was my very first attempt at a cityscape. Although not as technically accomplished as my later paintings, I still enjoyed doing this and it taught me lots of do’s and don’t’s for my later pictures. It also let me discover a place I had never visited and which I discovered through images to be an incredibly beautiful part of the world.
Favela
When I first started trying to seriously paint, I would enter competitions run by lots of different institutions as I looked to break into the art world. One of these was a competition run by the Brazilian embassy in London; the theme for the entrants was South American culture. I immediately thought of some of the amazing street murals I had seen in videos of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas and I decided to try and paint a collage of the murals I loved most. I made it into a street scene to add some life and although I failed to get in to the embassy’s final exhibition, I really enjoyed painting with so much colour. But the final word has to go to the incredible street artists in Brazil, they are superb!