Neal's Yard

I'm sure it wasn't quite that wonky when I took the original photographs... nor when I applied paint to canvas. I'm blaming the slightly off angle between the camera and the painting when I took the photograph of the painting of the photograph.

(Oh, that's confusing. So much simpler when you work direct from the subject. But time was limited, and plonking yourself in the middle of an urban footpath is a bit antisocial, to say the least.)

Anyway. I'm not telling you which town this is right now, although one or two of you may know. The painting is part of a project that hasn't been confirmed yet, and so please indulge me for now.

I liked these buildings because of the plethora of acute angles (there's a bit of an angular theme to this post, it seems) derived - I think - from squishing as much low-rise building as possible onto a corner in a thriving town centre.

Here are two in-progress shots (taken in artificial light and not corrected). I painted the sky and then roughed out the buildings in a darkish underpainting, and then I smeared brighter lighter colours on top, refining the shapes and adding details as I progressed. They got a bit mixed up with the dark colours beneath - but that only served to make everything more interesting, I think.

The people were the last thing to go in, and were A Bit Of A Challenge, being rather small to do with a knife, but I like challenges, and I'm rather pleased with the way they turned out. So here is a closeup of the mum and her little boy.

EDIT: See also No Parking.

Oil on canvas, 40 x 40 cm.