Friday, March 15, 2013

Nocturnes, Night Plein Air Painting in London (No 3 & 4)

These are two more night plein air paintings I have done of London. These are both based around Sloane Square, one of my favourite spots in London.

 A very good reference to read alongside this post is in this months Edition of The Artists Magazine  it has a full 3- paged article on Urban Nocturnes. In this article I share some demos and tips, methods and everything I do to get myself geared to painting at night. It's The April Edition, the one currently in the shops.

This is a cut out of the first page of the article in The Artist's Magazine (April)


On both these occasions I did my best to focus on the things that interest me most, working with a bit of speed but also making sure the scenes had that special feel that the night lights in London always have.

Number 3-Royal Court, Sloane Sqaure

Royal Court Theatre at Night, 10" x 8", Oil on Board
At certain intervals there's always a bus in front of the Royal Court Theatre at Sloane Square, I somehow didn't want to put it in but then it kept on parking there so I ended up having it being part of the painting. I think I should have titled the painting, "The Bus in front of Royal Court Theatre at Night".
Royal Court Theatre at Night- The set up

Number 4-  Lights and Shadows towards Sloane Square Station at Night


Lights and Shadows towards Sloane Square Station, 10" x 8", Oil on Board
 This one was finished under one sitting, I really wanted to capture those artificial lights from the stores, they had a way of bringing life to the pathway. The few figures that  where waiting for the night buses added a bit of drama to the scene.

Lights and Shadows towards Sloane Square Station, The set up
SPECIAL QUOTE
"I managed to stop myself painting over  the thinned paint I used to 'render' this in the dimness. You don't really know what you are doing when painting in the dark or under orange light. The effect is quite grim, which I like."-Peter Browns commentary on his painting 'Night, Cleveland Bridge'"

4 comments:

Lisa Graham said...

Your work is so inspiring...love these night scene paintings. I tweeted your video today...awesome!

adebanji said...

Thanks Lisa!

Christina Barton said...

Wow! I've only just found your page. I'm an art student and it's all so original and gorgeous. Really inspiring. :)

adebanji said...

Thanks Christina!