Roy Connelly

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.

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.

This afternoon I painted in the company of the Wapping Group of Artists.  The “Wappers” as they are affectionately known are a group of painters who get together once a week in the summer months to record life along the River Thames and its estuary.

Above is my painting of the Golden Hinde.  This 12×10 inch study is in oil on board.  The two small figures hidden in the middle distance are Bert Wright and Geoff Hunt both of whom are Past Presidents of the Royal Society of Marine Artists.

As well as being a fun evening, the auction at Heatherleys was a great success.  It was an exciting experience seeing my painting of Albert Bridge auctioned by Nick Bonham, formerly of  the Bonhams auction house.  Nick has auctioned over a million works of art in his career.

Other artists in the auction included Julian Barrow, Ken Howard and Jane Corsellis.  Both Ken and Julian were there along with many of the other artists taking part in the Chelsea Riverside exhibition.

Congratulations to Adebanji Alade, who won first price in the competition and many thanks to David Waddell and the Cheyne Walk Trust for organising the event.

The Cheyne Walk Trust is raising funds for a bursary for young artists at Heatherley School of Fine Art in Chelsea.

There will be an exhibition of paintings of the Chelsea Riverside at Heatherleys 18 – 22 April, 2 – 6pm.

On the evening of Thursday 22nd April there will be a reception, prize giving ceremony and an auction. Prizes will be presented by Ken Howard RA.

Full details here: Chelsea Exhibition The cover image is a detail from my painting of Albert Bridge which will feature in the auction.

If you would like to reserve tickets for the Reception and Auction click here: Reception tickets for Chelsea Riverside

Island Fine Arts. Bembridge, Isle of Wight.
27 March – 24 April 2010

For more information or to purchase any of these pictures please contact Island Fine Arts, tel: 01983 875133.

Click on any thumbnail to view full size. Then click on the image to see the next one or press ’start’ for slideshow.

I have work in two exhibitions in London at the moment.  ‘London Seen’ is a group show of London paintings at Llewellyn Alexander Fine Paintings.

‘Venice in Peril’ is also a group show,  in this case featuring paintings of Venice.  This popular annual exhibition, at W.H. Patterson in Albermarle Street, helps to raise funds for restoration projects in that most beautiful city.

At Venice in Peril there are works by Ken Howard, Auguste Bouvard, Ivan Lapper, David Sawyer, Robert E Wells, Roy Connelly, Jonathan Trowell, John Stillman and other talented artists.

London Seen features Tom Coates, Bruce Yardley, Roy Connelly, Liam O’Farrell, Terry McKifragan, Robert E Wells, Fraser King and others

If you fancy seeing both wonderful cities in a day, its only a short 20 minute walk between the two galleries.

London Seen Llewellyn Alexander Fine Paintings
11 January – 10 February 2010

Venice in Peril W. H. Patterson
13 January – 5 February 2010

The paintings above show the view from Riva Degli Schiavoni in Venice with San Giorgio on the left and the Doges Palace (under scaffolding) on the right,  Santa Maria Della Salute is in the distance.

Below that is a view of Cleopatra’s Needle by the River Thames in London.

Exhibition preparations were put on hold yesterday because it snowed.  I spent the whole day out painting instead of framing and labeling pictures.  The painting above was one of five.  It measures 16 x 20 inches and is in oil on board.

Earlier this week I was painting the River Thames at Strand on the Green.   The top picture shows the painting a couple of minutes after I started.  I have used very thin paint to draw in the basic composition. 

The middle photograph was taken twenty minutes later.  With a dramatic and fast moving sky I needed to work quickly to capture it.  The trees are a little more solid but the river is still almost untouched.

The last photo shows the painting an hour later.  The trees and river have been worked on together, with a little more work on the sky. By this point the day was starting to brighten up and touches of blue were appearing in the sky.  It was time stop as I did not want to end up with one scene painted on top of another.

I was working in oils on an 8 x 16 inch board.   Click on each image for a larger view.

South Bank Summer Evening

This picture was painted on the South Bank of the Thames in London yesterday afternoon.  It was painted very quickly to catch the effect of the light reflecting off the water between the bridge supports.  It is an effect that only occurs for about twenty minutes so it was necessary to work fast.

The background was painted rapidly in thin paint and the high lights off the water painted next in thicker paint – fat over lean as they say.

The figures were painted on location but after the sun had moved around and much of the sparkle had faded.  The shadows had to be moved back to match the position of the sun when the sparkle was painted.