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Watling Street
Oil (Mixed Media) on Panel
Unframed
SOLD
Bank Station
Oil (Mixed Media) on Panel
Unframed
SOLD
Leadenhall Market
Oil (Mixed Media) on Panel
Unframed
SOLD
Trafalgar Square
Oil (Mixed Media) on Panel
Unframed
See Price
£200
I have a particular love of Camille Pissarro’s ‘The Boulevard Montmartre at Night’, and that was very much the starting point for this series. I was captivated by the dreamy, melancholic atmosphere of Paris in the rain that he had created, and the bright shapes and streaks of colour from the streetlights and shopfronts bleeding through the downpour and glinting off the wet pavement. I discovered the amazing artwork of more contemporary urban artists like Jeremy Mann, from which I coveted his style and saw a similar but modern, impressionistic take on urban life. I then went into London and tried to capture the same familiar perspectives of the city’s depths, its streets and recesses, and the electrifying sense of freedom I felt there at night.
I add texture to these paintings with patches of tissue paper across the base to give them that little extra something. I find it works excellently for creating the dynamic reflections on the wet tarmac like that here on Watling Street leading up to St. Paul’s. The distorted textures also lend a loose realism to the piece and imbue it with a rough atmospheric quality that mirrors that of the quiet yet gleaming backstreet after dusk. I try my best not to get too hung up on the details and just let the broader use of shapes, texture and light come together to create the image and convey the life, grime and grandeur of the city.
My third piece in this series: A niched view along the cobbles of Leadenhall market, decorated with the Union and English flag. One of the things I always find particularly striking in others’ work that makes any piece stand out is the attention to lighting, whether that be an infusion of shallow morning light, the dulled colours of a landscape on a stormy day, or an impressionist take on the reticent glow of a city. In keeping, I really enjoyed painting the soft glow of amber and shadow creeping over the façade and into the arches, and light bleeding from the lamps and dancing across the cobbles from the streets outside.
NATHAN HAMMOND 