ASSIGNMENT FOUR

Following a recent visit to the Wirral near Liverpool, I was fascinated by Connah’s Quay Power Station sitting prominently on the Dee Estuary. I wanted to at least get some interpretation onto canvas and used it as my subject for Assignment 4.

Initially I took some photos and began to look at the basic composition & mood.

I liked the upward angle and industrial clean lines, the simple colours of concrete and steel complimenting the Pylon, also mirroring a form of power in another form.

The smoke & steam from the chimneys created a nice atmosphere although rather hid the basic form. I was undecided whether to add this to my composition.

After some work in my sketchbook I decided not to include the smoke & began to look more carefully at the construction of an electricity pylon, not something Id ever really done before.

I also spent some time on Google reading about the Station as well as its overall layout on the ground and place in the local community.

Very little art was available on Google, which frankly surprised me. The strong architectural appeal and huge local influence has surely inspired some work, perhaps only exhibited locally but not online.

This Assignment called for a large work, min 90x60cm or larger. My work is at these dimensions which bought its own challenges, not least the quantity of paint actually needed to cover the canvas let alone the brush size needed and time for application. Oh and my boards and easels were certainly not bought or made for work of this size, all bringing their own challenges!

Final painting, acrylic on canvas, 90cm x 60cm

Again I used a plastic credit card to apply the paint as well as decorators brushes, these tools helped to cover large areas of canvas quickly and thinly allowing for fast drying and additional layers.

This subject and painting still appeals to me and overall I’m quite pleased with the end result. The angle of looking up at a massive structure really helps to induce a feeling of being small against a large power generating plant. After making these prelim studies and then the larger painting, I’d like to move on and make a further painting, this time in oils, bringing much more atmosphere to the finished piece with more finesse and detail. I think the larger scale is very apt for the subject although I doubt I’d have naturally tried something so large on my own initiative.

Kyffin Williams really inspired me to be bolder in my work than previously and although I like Williams colour palette I wanted more feeling of openness and big skies which it not what I get from Williams work so I used a lighter blue/grey palette. I liked the industrial feel of artist Laura Oldfield Ford.