Posts tagged ·
Oxford
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I poured this painting at the Oregon State Fair on yesterday and spent this afternoon finishing up the brushwork. I rather like it. The greens feel very England to me.
This painting has sold, but you may still purchase a fine art print.
This is Hertford Bridge, more commonly known as the The Bridge o Sighs, after the The Bridge of Sighs in Venice. It connects the two quads of Hertford College, in Oxford, England. It doesn’t really resemble Venice’s Bridge of Sighs, but it is beautiful, and quintessentially Oxford. We visited in the late afternoon when street was beautifully shadowed.
A little taste of Oxford—another poured painting.
This painting has sold, but you may still purchase a fine art print.
The Gothic archways surrounding the quads in churches and colleges have always intrigued me. This one happens to be at Christchurch, in Oxford, but it could be one of hundreds in Britain. The ribbed ceilings and the slanting light from the quad are always both beautiful and romantic.
In this painting I exaggerated the contrast poured the colors.
I decided to try to add watercolor sketches to my usual travel diary on our trip to England and Europe this summer. I bought a little eight half-pan watercolor set and couple of waterproof black markers for the purpose. I didn’t get more than about two sketches every three days in because our days were full and no one wanted to drop everything and wait while I sketched. So I sketched on the fly in pencil and added ink and watercolor in the evenings.
The journal paper while intended for sketching isn’t really intended for water-media, so I had to work pretty dry. The results are more whimsical than accurate and the colors are often downright fanciful. So without further ado, or apology, here are my sketches of London and surrounding cities:
The London part of our trip was pretty much a WWII extravaganza. The highlights included The Imperial War Museum, The Churchill War Rooms, and St. Paul’s Cathedral. St. Paul’s was a symbol of hope during the Blitz, and though everything around it was destroyed by bomb and fire, the Cathedral remained almost unharmed.
In addition to London itself we visited Hampton Court, Oxford, and Canterbury by train.
I took over seven hundred photos during the trip, and I to make many paintings of England, Italy, France, and Switzerland. In the meantime I will post my travel sketches one city at a time.