Original 4 x 6 Oil on panel
Private Collection
Painted January 2023
After my mum died in 2022, I went home to Goole, England, for a short time. I spent some of those days walking the same streets I had walked as a kid. It was a difficult trip for obvious reasons, but my artist’s eye didn’t exactly switch itself off. I started noticing familiar bits of Goole differently and came home wanting to paint some of them.
The Salt and Pepper Pots came out of that. One of Goole’s unmistakable water towers rises above an ordinary street full of terraced houses, trees and parked cars. That mix is what interested me. A local landmark, but not presented like a postcard. It is just there, looming over daily life like it always has.
This one is tiny — only 4 x 6 inches — so there wasn’t much room for messing around. I used cool blues and grays through the sky and cars, then warmer ochres, oranges and creams in the buildings and tower, with some fairly aggressive greens in the trees. The brushwork is chunky because, frankly, at this size it has to be.
I would have loved to have stood on the streets of Goole and painted it outdoors. Goole isn’t exactly the sort of place where you see an easel set up on every corner, but it would have been cool. Instead, I painted this one back home from the references I brought with me. It remains part of my private collection.
Want a print instead? You can find prints of this piece here: The Salt and Pepper Pots, Goole, England.
Original 4 x 6 Oil on panel
Private Collection
Painted January 2023
After my mum died in 2022, I went home to Goole, England, for a short time. I spent some of those days walking the same streets I had walked as a kid. It was a difficult trip for obvious reasons, but my artist’s eye didn’t exactly switch itself off. I started noticing familiar bits of Goole differently and came home wanting to paint some of them.
The Salt and Pepper Pots came out of that. One of Goole’s unmistakable water towers rises above an ordinary street full of terraced houses, trees and parked cars. That mix is what interested me. A local landmark, but not presented like a postcard. It is just there, looming over daily life like it always has.
This one is tiny — only 4 x 6 inches — so there wasn’t much room for messing around. I used cool blues and grays through the sky and cars, then warmer ochres, oranges and creams in the buildings and tower, with some fairly aggressive greens in the trees. The brushwork is chunky because, frankly, at this size it has to be.
I would have loved to have stood on the streets of Goole and painted it outdoors. Goole isn’t exactly the sort of place where you see an easel set up on every corner, but it would have been cool. Instead, I painted this one back home from the references I brought with me. It remains part of my private collection.
Want a print instead? You can find prints of this piece here: The Salt and Pepper Pots, Goole, England.