This painting of the Royal Crescent in Bath was done for my Bath Group show in May last year at The Bath Gallery. I went to Bath to do a study in graphite and then I took loads of pictures too. I came back to London with all the reference material and embarked on this piece, which is my largest painting of a place in Bath.
It is such an incredible structure and I love it, ever since I did two (here and here) plein air shots of it during my Bath Marathon. I have always longed to do a bigger piece and this was my chance, although painting the details was a nightmare!
It some how didn't sell during the exhibition but it fetched me a commission of St Paul's in the same format(A couple visited the exhibition and just loved the way I painted this structure that they asked if I could paint St Paul's the same way) for 3K and then I was happy to later hear that this piece sold for the same price after the exhibition was over! It was indeed a double blessing!
The Royal Crescent bathed in the spring sun, 48" x 20", Oil on canvas, 2011
SPECIAL QUOTE
I'm a firm believer in the value of working outdoors from nature, and I'm not shy about saying one simply can't be a good studio painter unless one paints directly from nature outdoors. That said, I seldom finish a painting on location. I take digital photographs of the subject when I start painting, and then I complete the painting in the studio. If the plein air piece is promising enough, I will use it as the basis of a larger studio painting, again using my digital photographs to guide me through the initial stages of the larger composition"-Kathryn Stats