My most recent work, the Janescapes,
started almost by accident with a horizontal dreamscape, made up of unlikely
shaped and coloured buildings that I’d seen in a dream.
I then thought I’d try treating my home town Bingley in a similar way – as being hilly the buildings naturally tier into wonderful formations and wherever you look in Bingley
you can see layers of roofs and chimneys. Conventional perspective can be abandoned and you can work freely concentrating on colour shape and composition. The "Janescapes" as they have come to be known (quirky urban landscapes) explore this theme. The first pictures in this series were all worked straight from my mind with no photographs or sketches on the spot. Sometimes I would ask myself what makes Bingley and the obvious things would come up like Bradford and Bingley Building Society,
Five Rise Locks – the Damart chimney – so I included these things.
Then I added bright flecks of colour and humorous incident - bras the size of windows – traffic going the wrong way along the road – shadows going in all directions etc. - reflecting the highlights people bring to the monochrome townscapes. Other times I would just almost subconsciously let the brush take over and bombard the paper with ‘Bingley shapes and colours’ not consciously thinking about a particular spot.
On a bright day, I can look across the never ending rows of terraces with their chimneys casting black shadows, echoed by the vast mill chimneys, contrasted by rows of billowing washing, bright bollards and American Tan stockings, and think it is the most beautiful place in the world.
you can see layers of roofs and chimneys. Conventional perspective can be abandoned and you can work freely concentrating on colour shape and composition. The "Janescapes" as they have come to be known (quirky urban landscapes) explore this theme. The first pictures in this series were all worked straight from my mind with no photographs or sketches on the spot. Sometimes I would ask myself what makes Bingley and the obvious things would come up like Bradford and Bingley Building Society,
Five Rise Locks – the Damart chimney – so I included these things.
Then I added bright flecks of colour and humorous incident - bras the size of windows – traffic going the wrong way along the road – shadows going in all directions etc. - reflecting the highlights people bring to the monochrome townscapes. Other times I would just almost subconsciously let the brush take over and bombard the paper with ‘Bingley shapes and colours’ not consciously thinking about a particular spot.