London Time Painting

Back in December of last year (2015), I was fortunate enough to participate in my first London Art Show. The show was put on by Exhibit Here and took place in the Southbank area of London. I didn’t make any direct sales at the show. However, participating in the show lead to a conversation. That conversation lead to a commissioned painting. Then end result is “London Time.” My Night series have been my most popular works. They started out as white ink drawings on black paper of places I have visited or lived. Each one was on an A4 (8×12) sheet of paper. When I was approached to do this commission, the couple wanted a large scale night scene of London. I had to rethink the medium. I wasn’t confident that an ink drawing at 24″x 36″ was right. Instead, I switched to oil paint. This painting was ambitious. The clients wanted three buildings: Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. I had to get just the right angle across the Thames to achieve that goal. The detail for those three buildings is tremendous and sometimes repetitive. In order for the piece to meet my expectations, that detail was required. Finally, I wanted to make sure I capture the feeling of living in London. The client, like myself, are expats. They are not live long Londoners, nor are they even British. Living in London is not romantic like Paris, nor this grand ancient city like Rome. London does feel familiar, like home. I choose the title “London Time” because not only is it a play off Big Ben but also how most of us expats are only here for a certain amount of time. That time is different for all of us and yet somehow the same. As it turns out, the clients are now going to be moving back to the US. I am glad this piece will be with them.