When the weather wasn’t freezing during the start of September I did some more of the night paintings. The last in this series is the first here, the ‘Towards The City (Night Version)’, a view from Richmond Park at night towards the city which is almost the night version of this oil painting, just further along the road. The city is indeed your jewellery box and lights up with red lights on the cranes and skyscrapers, and white lights of the buildings themselves. The gloaming is especially impressive on a misty night.
And yes there was no street lights in the park, so apart from a little torch work and the odd car, this was mostly done in almost complete darkness.
The next two were done I think on the same night, definitely with the same materials – Derwent XL blocks, Indian ink and watercolour. I think I did an oil painting too which I have to reshoot as it’s come out reflective in the photos, you can’t see much under the glare of the canvas grain!
The House By The River is a a view of a very modern house built along the River Thames the Hampton Court side opposite Queen’s Promenade. I have featured it before in the background of some of my oils and watercolours. It’s in the place of a ruined house I used to photograph. On the night in question the lights were all on like that and made a real abstract/Mondrian pattern. They also have these entry or parking lights that shine in diamond/arrow shapes, and small red lights which I suspect is infra-red.
Problem was that during the making of this the owners switched off all the lights one by one! Also this has gotten darker on the edges since I planned to use the other side and some of the black gesso leaked under the page.
Mixed feelings about this one, partly because I remember how it looked and problems with the ink and reflections. Others seem to like it though.
Earlier that night I did a ‘gloaming’ piece by Raven’s Ait, hence the name. I am obsessed with poplars (or are they cypresses?) along the stretch of the River Thames. I like how the watercolour washes suggest clouds, and the roughness of the Derwent XL for the trees.
This again has changed a bit since this photo, as it seems to have not been 100% fixed so slightly blurred charcoal…probably improved it!
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