One often hears the phrase ‘industrial landscape’, I like this description. It reminds us that the landscape idiom is not solely a preserve of the rural idyll. There is a different beauty in the ribbon of industrial plant along a river, the austere lights of airport runways at night, of the shapes thrown by street lights feeding featureless trunk roads. Weston Point on the River Mersey is such an example.

Leaden Cloud, Weston Point (2015)

This is another in the series of works in 2015 painted on location, on a windswept shore frequented by dog-walkers rather than artists. Before lay a twenty mile vista stretching from the power plant at Weston Point to the brotherly hills of Helsby and Frodsham, towards the distant spires of Stanlow refinery. The first skeins of geese made their presence felt in the great sky. Clouds rolled in great sheets and spots of rain teased the canvas intermittently. A wonderful Marsh Harrier flew by..

I love the surprising colours of these landscapes. It is a pleasure to reach for a cerulean blue on a grim day. The painting of the steely chimneys is a pleasing counterpoint to the broad passages of greys and greens from the hog brush.

Light eventually stopped play. I washed the brushes in the rain.

Acrylic on canvas, 40x30cm
BUY