The Green Dragon Painting

This painting is of one of the steam trains running out of Alston station, a narrow gauge railway in South Tynedale. The Green Dragon is often to be found chugging along the beautiful North Pennines countryside from Alston to Slaggyford, which has inspired many paintings, including the Lambley Viaduct, also along the same railway line. I make my work from a combination of first hand observational drawings and paintings in the open air, backed up by photos as aide memoirs back in the studio, as well as imagination to produce a final piece on canvas using mixed media, a combination of oil paint, non-recyclable plastics either collaged or ‘soldered’ onto the canvas, and pastel. I want people to enjoy my images and to perhaps re look at their own environment through a more vibrant lens, but then on closer inspection to discover the different materials on the canvas and ask questions as to why I use plastic; why it is there. I want the discovery of plastic on the canvas to be as subtle as it is in the environment – not really understanding its greater impact at first, but when given the time to contemplate its wider effects, to think beyond the surface, beyond the beauty.