Roy Connelly

Here are some of the paintings from my trip to Bath last week.  I was there for 2 and a half days and painted 19 small panels.  The smallest was 6×8 and the largest 12×16inches.  There are several I am quite happy with and a couple that were not finished due to changing light and heavy rain, but overall it was a good trip.

The heavy downpour on Friday afternoon resulted in one of my favourite pictures from the whole trip.

Above: Downpour in Queen Square, 6×8 inches, oil on board.
Below: Busker outside the Pump Rooms, 6×8 inches, oil on board.

While I was painting I met up with the winner of last year’s Bath Prize Plein Air award, Adebanji Alade. He has posted photos of several  painters he found at work on the streets of Bath on his blog.  You can see me, Karl Terry and Michael Richardson as well as plenty of Adebanji at work on his own marathon painting project.

Last week was a busy one, painting in London with Paul Rafferty and Karl Terry along with David Bachmann and Julian Barrow.

We painted at all of the following locations: Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, St James’s Park, Strand on the Green, Royal Academy, Royal Opera Arcade, Pall Mall, House Boats at Chelsea, Sargent’s Studio in Tite Street, Aldwich, Trafalgar Square (again) Strand on the Green (again), the Old Vic Theatre and Hammersmith Bridge.

The pictures above show us painting in Julian Barrow’s Tite Street studio previously occupied by John Singer Sargent.

My painting Wittering Light has been short-listed in a competition to choose a cover image for the next Ken Bromley Art Supplies catalogue.

To see all the shortlisted images  click here and don’t forget to vote for your favourite!

Another of my paintings, Watching the Thames,  has also been long listed for the London Lives painting competition.

Update: This picture has now made the shortlist and will feature in the exhibition at Bankside gallery in September.

Just a couple of photos of me working at some fabulous locations on my recent trip to Dorset.

Top: At Old Harry Rocks (spot the Artist!)Above: Painting on the beach at Lyme Regis.

I will post some of the paintings as soon as I get round to photographing them.

I spent yesterday afternoon and evening painting in the city of Bath.  It’s a great location and much quieter thanWestminster Bridge in London where I was painting today.

It was 30C in London with the sun blazing down on Westminster Bridge.  This one one of the busiest places I have tried to paint.

I spent this afternoon at Messum’s in Cork Street where Peter Brown NEAC gave a very entertaining talk on his life as a painter on the streets of London and Bath.

Having recently spent a day painting with Peter in London and watching his painting emerge from the blank canvas it was good to hear his thoughts on everything from coping with changing light to why he wont use a camera.

The talk coincided with the exhibition The Magic and Poetry of Everyday Life. A collection of paintings by New English Art Club artists from its beginnings in the nineteenth century to the present day.  This fine exhibition is well worth seeing and runs until the 3rd of July 2010.

Painted on the King’s Road in Chelsea this afternoon.  I liked the way the shadows fell across the side of the building. Oil on board, 12×10 inches.

These are a few of the locations I have been painting in this week.  I spent several days painting by the River Thames in Richmond then worked on the beach at West Wittering yesterday.

London has warmed up and the sun has been shining for a week now so it has been good to be able to paint without a jacket on.

On Friday I spent a very enjoyable day painting in London with Peter Brown NEAC. Along with Susan Wolff and Ann Hopkins the four of us set up our easels by Cleopatra’s Needle next to the River Thames.  You can see one of my pictures above.

In the last week I have painted at Marble Arch,  Hyde Park,  The Mall and St James Park (above).

Above is a view Duke of York Square, by the King’s Road in Chelsea.  All the paintings shown here are 8×10 inches (25×30cm) and are in oil on board.

The paintings shown here are two of my favourites from the latest exhibition by my friend John Dobbs. I visited the show last week and was pleased to see an impressive selection of his latest work.  John and I often paint together by the Thames in London.

11th to 23rd May 2010

The Fountain Gallery,
Bridge Road, Molesey,
KT8 9HA

Just across the river from Hampton Court Palace.