The Journey

I can only recall what I think was an interview that was being given by Roger Taylor of Queen. He was being interviewed in his home and right behind him was an enormous reproduction of the legendary Animals album cover. The cover artwork was, as anybody could tell, the album cover to Pink Floyd's Animals. But the sheer size of it and the fact that it was painted in oils which gave the painting almost its own luminescence. I'd love to have something like that, I thought. But my days of producing artwork had been long neglected. I can't just get a bunch of oil paints, a canvas, some brushes and get going. It just doesn't work like that.

Eventually though I did get back into painting and never forgot that this was a piece of work that I was keen to achieve one day. Then, after gathering some confidence and some know how, I set about the task. 

At first, the prospect of undertaking a project of this magnitude in terms of size, technical requirement and time… was under estimated. I commenced the project in 2015 and managed to only finish it approaching 4 years later, in 2019.

Why did it take so long? Two reasons why it did.

When I finished the sky, I was so pleased with it that I could actually stare are the result, it was really already that enjoyable. The impressionist style I used to produce the sky was true to the original image yet so much more interesting because of the course paint and impressionist style that let the ‘paint do the work’.

Now, how to do the same for the rest of the work? I couldn’t use the same technique, at least I felt I couldn’t, without destroying the essence of the scene which relied so much on detail, intricate detail actually. So I came to an impasse. I’d return to the work, staring at what I was going to do next to finish it and failing yet again to do anything as I couldn’t resolve how to finish it without it being just a direct copy of a photo, ie realism. That was definitely not what I wanted. I’d stare at that sky I painted already so well, got my fill…and left it alone again for months.

got to Winter of 2018 and having yet again returned to this large canvas that was taking space on my easel and reminding me constantly that I hadn’t finished it and making me wonder if I ever would. It’s now or never.

I picked up a small roller, a paint brish, a colour mover and picked two colours; Naples yellow and Burnt Umber. I had the base colours for the four chimeys already done, I finished them quickly, maybe 10mins. Wow! And they don’t look too bad. I worked down to the base and darkened the base with Payne’s Grey that looks black (but isn’t)… The chimneys were done in less than 30mins! And I caught the likeness…and they were rough enough to keep to the impressionist style I so wanted to maintain. I carried on that night painting in the shadows of the Power Station and some other parts. Finally! It was the first time in literally years that the painting began to resemble what it might look like when it was finished. It spurred me on. Many successive long nights and weekends given over to constructing the remainder.