I enjoy producing landscapes and I have quite naturally focused on depicting places close to home, wherever that has been at the time.
My true home will always be in the region of the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which I was born in and lived until I was 12 years old. Newcastle has a very iconic Quayside area around the River Tyne which it shares with Gateshead on the opposite (southern) bank, with famous bridges such as the Tyne Bridge, Swing Bridge and High Level Bridge:
After that my family moved about 5 km away to the same (large) village I was schooled called Ponteland ('Pont') which is in the very south of Northumberland. There are several pretty scenes there, but this is probably my favourite of the drawings nd paintings I made showing a facet of Ponteland. It shows one of the well-known pubs in the village centre:
I went to university also in the North East of England, slightly further south in the beautiful city of Durham. You are spoilt for choice for lovely sights in Durham, not least the incredible iconic cathedral, but my favourite artwork of mine of Durham is definitely a painting I did of my college, St Chad's. For one because the college sold prints of it, such that when I visit university friends I will often see it on display in their homes, which always makes me happy:
Another painting inspired by my time studying and living in Durham focuses on the exterior of the 'Rose Window' of Durham Cathedral, a stained glass window design sectioned into in a circular formation which is a magnificent sight. I chose to depict it from the outside because you see this directly from (e.g. the front door of) St Chad's central building, Main College.
My interpretation here aims to capture two special aspects of this view: firstly the architectural interest, namely the unique structure of the tracery of the rose window, both the pane partitioning and the stonework, better appreciated at an angle in my opinion; and secondly the interplay between the vivid lighting resulting from the sunset, directly onto the exterior and, as imagined, through the panes from the subtle illumination of the cathedral interior.
I will share more of my landscapes to this page soon, covering my time in the South of England which I moved to in 2017 shortly after I graduated, (I have since lived in both Exeter and Reading)!