“Silver Fox Leaving Copenhagen Tunnel” One of Sir Nigel Gresley’s A4 Class departing Kings Cross bound for the North I the early days of the Nationalised British Railways. Just finished this one today.
Just finished another painting, something a bit different for me. A No. 8 tram in Perth (Western Australia), turning right at the corner of Barrack and Murray Streets, sometime towards the end of the 1950s. Perth’s trams were before our time here, but I rather wish we still had them. The ‘Hotel Perth’ building is still there, though the verandahs (like most buildings) are all gone. The last time I passed it there was a ‘Specsavers’ occupying the ground floor. Ahern’s was a splendid shop in it’s day, swallowed up (metaphorically and physically as far as their premises go) into the national David Jones chain.
For a change, a drawing (done digitally) instead of a painting. “Golden Days”, a sunny summer day on a Great Western branchlike on the 1920s.
The LMS Turbomotive, No 6202, built in 1935 and one of the last serious attempts in Britain to fundamentally re-think the design of the steam locomotive. Seen here early in her life, before rebuilding as conventional Steam Locomotive and subsequent dramatic and sad events.
I’ve taken a little extra time off to extend the Christmas break.. It’s amazing what freedom fro time pressures, alarm clocks and so forth can do for art productivity. With a conscious effort to be a little more ‘painterly’ this one was finished in under a week! This is the ‘Coronation Scot’ hauled at speed by Stanier Pacific ‘Princess Alice’, seen against a sunset in 1937 or so.
My first painting project of the year, or at least the first one to be finished this year.
Great Western King Class Loco, King Henry VI near the end of its working life in the early 1960s, seen at Westbourne Park, having come off the ‘Cities United Express’. This was inspired by an uncredited (but possibly by R.C. Riley) photograph posted by Peter Quilley. The locomotive was one of the last four survivors of her class, withdrawn for scrapping at the end of 1962.
“Ready for the Off,” inspired by a photograph shared with me by Adrian Vaughan, a late 19th century view of a Johnson 4-4-0 on the Midland Railway. A true bit of elegance hailing from Derby.
A Painting just finished – something a bit different to the usual this time, with one of my occasional forays into maritime art..
HMS Dreadnought sets sail (metaphorically) in 1905. It was a time when we weren’t all plagued by self-doubt about our role in the world. In the background is a relic of an earlier age. It was also a time when the Royal Navy still had some of its great wooden ‘Ships of the Line’ painted in immaculate Nelson chequer though usually used as training ships and accomodation for recruits.
Greater Albion Art and Design 