Art On The Streets Of Croydon

My paintings have been blown up (onto banners) as part of a town-wide art installation in central Croydon.

Montage using Glenn Foster photography

Three designs of lamp-post banners - featuring slices of my paintings ‘February’, ‘People’ and ‘Night Flowers’ are now hanging up and repeated on the High Street and elsewhere in Croydon. Alongside them are some other really bright, eye-catching works on banners by local creatives Miguel Sopena, Divya Sharma, Skye Baker and Melanie Russell. The Creative Croydon initiative set up by Croydon BID has returned to Croydon town centre this Winter creating an open-air art gallery for people to enjoy.

Thanks so much to Julia at 31% Wool and the Check Out Croydon team for making this happen. Thanks to Glenn Foster for taking these photographs, too. The whole display of work is up until April 2024.

For more background to the project visit Croydonist.

All the artists’ works appearing in the outdoor ‘exhibition’.

ING Discerning Eye 2023 Exhibition

A bit of late news but my trio of wood panel drawings ‘Junction’, ’Stafford Road’ and ‘Vauxhall’ and my two Devon paintings ‘Pause (I)’ and ‘Pause (II)’ were all selected for the 2023 ING Discerning Eye Exhibition at the end of last year.

It was held at The Mall Galleries from 17th to 26th November 2023, and online until the 31st December 2023. The ING Discerning Eye annual exhibition is a show of small, domestic scale, works independently selected by six prominent figures from different areas of the art world: two artists, two collectors and two critics. This is the third time I’ve exhibited with the Discerning Eye (I was previously selected in 2020 and 2022).

I had a lively lovely evening at the artists’ opening of the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition. It was great to have five pieces on the large wall curated by Tony Adams. Excuse the double-posed photo composite but I couldn’t get them all in the same frame with me! So good to have four of them hanging together.

The exhibition was curated by a star-studded panel including singer Ian “H” Watkins and former England footballer Tony Adams among other tastemakers. Out of 6,500 entries, 628 artworks by 387 creatives were shortlisted for this prestigious show. The ING Discerning Eye showcases talent in a wide range of media – painting, drawing, sculpture, print, photography, video, textile, ceramic and more. This is the 25th year of the Discerning Eye charity’s partnership with bank ING.

Penny Harris and Marine Costello discuss the work. [ Photo: Parker Harris ]

Penny Harris and Marine Costello discuss the work. [ Photo: Parker Harris ]

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2023 Selection

My two paintings: ‘Push Button And Wait’ and ‘No Stopping’ have been selected for the Royal Academy of Art’s Summer Exhibition 2023, helmed by David Remfry RA.

The proud parent posed with his offspring! Selected by Eileen Cooper RA for her Room IX.

I did these pieces in the first lockdown and since then they’ve been on the wall of my studio. Really glad they’re going to be seen by a larger audience than just me! ‘No Stopping’ and ‘Push Button And Wait’.

David Remfry was one of the judges for the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition in 2020, that I was also in, and ultimately chose my painting ‘Check Your Travel’ as the winner of the inaugural Cityscape Prize.

This year saw 11,204 entries from the public with 998 artists making the cut and 1,613 artworks featuring in the exhibition.

You can watch a nice tour of the show here. It’s effectively a walk around after everyone has gone home. Can you spot my paintings? They are there, I assure you.

The back of my head admiring the wall of work I was featured on (bottom left). Photo: Sam Mortimer

 

East Bridge House (Turn Left) - the story

My painting ‘East Bridge House (Turn Left)’ started off as an artwork inspired by a dramatic urban view. As I learnt more about the location, I discovered a story hidden beneath the Croydon tarmac.

East Bridge House (Turn Left). 2021. Acrylic on wood panel. 61cm x 61cm.

The painting was inspired by a view from the Croydon tower block known by many different names, including The 50p Building, No.1 Croydon, The Thrupenny Bit Building and the NLA Tower. The area shown in the painting was originally the site of an old building called East Bridge House (and this gave me the title for the work). The owners refused to sell up when the modern block was proposed, but the tower was constructed looming above them anyway. Eventually, East Bridge House fell empty and was demolished.

Writer John Grindrod says:

In the heart of suburban Surrey sits the NLA Tower, now known as No.1 Croydon. It was designed, like hundreds of others, in Seifert’s vast draughtsmans’ office. In the original 1964 plans it was set to be, in the fashion of the day, a tower sat atop a podium. But when it came to construction things didn’t turn out quite that straightforward. East Bridge House, a solicitor’s office, sat on part of the site that the podium block was due to occupy, and the owner wasn’t willing to move. Lengthy legal wrangling ensued, but in the end construction had to start without a resolution, and so the podium was scrapped. Instead the NLA Tower became a free-standing block, albeit nestling next to East Bridge House. The tower emerges from the rough concrete volcano-mouth of an underground car park, like a Thunderbirds rocket caught mid-launch. East Bridge House, that pesky neighbour, was finally demolished in 1973, three years after construction had finished, and at last the tower could shrug off accusations that it was yet another suburban semi.

Quote taken from ‘NLA Tower, Croydon’ by John Grindrod published on the Twentieth Century Society website, November 2014. www.c20society.org.uk

With the help of Twitter, Turf Projects and the Museum of Croydon, I’ve managed to find some photos of plucky little East Bridge House.

From a painter’s point of view, I began working on this using just black, greys and white acrylic paint, with a plan to add colours and coloured glazes later on.

I masked off the ‘islands’ of grass and pavement, leaving me the tarmac areas free to spray with paint from brushes (and toothbrushes) to give it a gravelly texture.

Stage one of adding colour glazes. I’ve painted the shadows first, with the objects casting them still to come on top later.

Prints of the finished painting can be purchased via my Etsy store here.

ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2022 - the show

A trip out to a packed artists’ preview night at The Mall Galleries was a fun affair. I discovered who had selected my paintings, saw many pieces of great work by others and found an opportunity for some goofy posing to the camera.

Mini Croydon 3 - selected by Gurinder Chadha. 🔴 SOLD

Mini Croydon 2 - selected by Kate Enters. 🔴 SOLD

Mini Croydon 4 - selected by Kate Enters. 🔴 SOLD

Mini Croydon 3 was chosen by film director Gurinder Chada. Mini Croydon 2 and Mini Croydon 4 were chosen by Kate Enters, director of ArtCan. The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition runs from 11th - 20th of November 2022 and will be available to view online until 31st December 2022. The works of all the artists are available to buy.

I found it (and the red dot).

It’s hard to pose with your paintings when they are so small!

I also had a nice preview piece about the exhibition from local Croydon publication Inside Croydon.