In the blink of an eye

I thought I'd share with you how my latest painting came about.

I love Newcastle. I studied there. It has changed so much since I arrived as a fresh faced student in 1993 but it holds a special place in my heart. It's a wonderful, characterful, beautiful, vibrant city with a proud history and identity. I took some photos on the Quayside of the Millenium "Blinking Eye" bridge and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art recently and the light was just too tempting not to paint!

I rarely draw when I paint in acrylic; it's usually more of an organic process - lay the paint down until I'm happy. The beauty of acrylic paint is how easy it is to change things I'm not happy with, move things around, add and take away elements.

But this landscape was technically tricky. I had to draw out the buildings, get my measurements right and my lines straight!

I recorded the whole process using hyperlapse photography. Part of me feels uncomfortable with making my hours of painstaking work look easy, as though I bashed the painting out. It's actually an all consuming, slow, calm process. Admittedly it wouldn't make riveting viewing though! So, here's 65 or so hours of drawing and painting, 6 paint colours, 2 "palettes" (IKEA plates) hyperlapsed, cut and condensed to make one minute's footage of my (as yet unnamed) painting.