Going home in daylight

The clocks go forward tonight which makes Monday one of my favourite commuting days.  If (big if) I was to leave the office at 5:30 and if (even bigger if) South Western Railway run on time, Monday is the first day of the year when I can arrive home in daylight.

Arriving in Canary Wharf on those dark January mornings can be a bit depressing.  Hundreds of us wrapped up in our winter coats, climbing up the escalators and preparing ourselves to make the quick dash through the rain into the office.  Most of us won't step outdoors again until we make the return journey in the dark later in the day.  This is why the arrival of daylight on Monday will be so welcome.

As those of you who follow me on Instagram will be aware, this first picture was built up over the course of about a month.  I had to be quite careful as I tried to map out the shape of the roof and the perspective on the escalators while still retaining a somewhat miserable atmosphere.  For the next one I wanted to work more quickly so I set myself the challenge of painting the other end of my commute at Fleet station in one afternoon.  I spend a minimum of 3 hours a day commuting and I spent 4 hours on this picture.  Somehow the 4 hours painting felt like a better use of time!

Sunrise at Fleet Pond

On a freezing cold day back in January, I had an appointment at the dentist to have a filling replaced.  Knowing how quickly the station car park fills up, I drove up early and parked my car then found myself with half an hour to kill before I went for my appointment.  Those of you who know Fleet will be aware that the station is right next to Fleet Pond, a nature reserve that has featured previously in this blog.  It was an icy day and the pond was completely frozen over so I decided to spend my time watching the sun rise.  It was a beautiful morning which was inevitably going to end up in a painting one day.  It took a couple of months for me to come back to it.  This is often the case as I mull the picture over in my head, trying to work out what I want from the end result.  In this case it was the blues and pinks of the sky that stayed in my mind so that's what I set out to capture. I used a watercolour under-painting, followed by pastels - a technique you'll have seen me use once or twice before.  

Having finished this picture, I took a bit of a break from painting over the summer, I focusing instead on landscaping the garden. Those of you who also paint will know that after a break, it's sometimes hard to get back into things and when I returned to my easel I was at a bit of a loss as to where to begin.  I've stopped parking my car at the station now (the cost is ridiculous) and instead use my parents' driveway which is a 10 minute walk away round, you guessed it, Fleet Pond.  So now I get these fabulous sunrises every single day of the week.  It seemed an obvious place to start - pick up again where I left off.  The next few paintings ended up in the bin.  I couldn't seem to get what was in my head out onto the paper and I screwed them up in frustration.  This afternoon I decided to just spend some time playing around with a few sketches which was exactly what I needed to do.  This is one of them - another sunrise using Pan Pastels.  Pan Pastels are pastel pigment compressed into a dish and you apply them using either your fingers or sponges.  I opted for sponges this time, something I haven't really tried before but will definitely be doing again.  I stopped myself from adding too much detail on the reed banks, choosing instead to just hint at them with the green.  I love the end product and as it was supposed to just be an experiment it has come as a bit of a surprise.  Now I'm left wondering what I can do next with these lovely little pots of colour but for now I'll leave you with today's efforts.

Fleet Pond

Fleet pond is Hampshire's largest freshwater lake.  It's located next to the station and along with the surrounding area of heath-land and marshland forms a nature reserve that the residents of Fleet are justifiably proud of.  My parents live a couple of minutes walk from Fleet Pond and my Dad is an active member of the Fleet Pond Society.  When my parents go on holiday I park my car at their house so I can water the garden on my way home from work.  A couple of years ago, as I was walking back to their house after work a rainbow could be seen from the jetty at the end of their road.  I couldn't resist stopping for a few photos thinking that one day, this would make a nice painting.  It's taken me a while to actually paint this.  Rainbows aren't easy and I never quite figured out how I could make it work in watercolour.  In the end, I decided to try with pastels instead and I'm reasonably happy with the results.  It's one of those pictures that I think looks better in real life than it does in a photograph but that's probably a reflection on my photography skills more than anything else.  It took a long time to get the clouds right and once I'd finished the picture, there were several weeks worth of tweaks added before I was happy enough to put it in a frame.  Part of the reason for eventually putting it in a frame was to stop myself from fiddling with it any further as I was in danger of over-doing it.

The jetty wasn't in my original photo as that's where I stood to take my pictures.  I went back another day to take those pictures as I thought it would make for a more interesting picture.  The person with his camera wasn't there either.  Someone did walk past a moment or two after I took my photos and took his phone out of his pocket to try and catch the same picture.  Just as he did that, the rainbow vanished and the rain started.  I decided to rewrite history a little in my painting and allow him the opportunity to arrive a minute earlier and catch the picture.  It was quite a lovely sight and it's a shame he missed out.

Commuting

Much as I would like to, I don't earn my living through painting.  Instead, I get up at 6 o'clock every morning and make my way up to the bright lights of the city.  Everyone I know who does this journey, complains about it as some time or another (I'm including myself in that list).  But even commuting has it's moments and my next two paintings were my attempt at capturing some of them.

I walk or bus to the station (depending on the weather) and arrive in time to catch the 7:22 train.  There is a point around late October / early November when this part of my commute coincides with sunrise.  I remember when I was in Fiji, I got up early one morning and climbed to the top of a nearby hill to watch the sun rise and it was one of those magical moments that will stay with me for the rest of my life.  Sunrise at Fleet station on a cold November morning is somewhat less magical but I do like the way the light of the sky reflects off the rails.

It takes about 45 minutes to get to Waterloo then it's onto the tube to complete my journey to Canary Wharf.  All through history the religions of the world have built giant temples and cathedrals to remind us of the power and dominance of whichever God it is they want us to worship and I sometimes think the buildings in Canary Wharf are temples to the God of Money.  Love it or hate it, this is an imposing place and I've been wanting to do a painting of it f for a while.  So I was probably the only person on the Isle of Dogs who was quite pleased to walk out of my office one day last week and see big dark storm clouds gathering behind the tower.  The sun was still shining behind me and it reflected of the Citibank building to produce quite an impressive scene.  It wasn't easy to paint though.  This is my second attempt which I'm reasonably happy with although if I was to do it again I might make the sky a bit darker.  Those of you who have used masking fluid will appreciate the number of paintbrushes I got through painting this twice and will understand why I'm unlikely to try a third version.

But dramatic skies are just that, dramatic skies and they can happen anywhere.  What actually makes my commute bearable and at times even enjoyable is the people who share the pain with me.  If you're on this list then these pictures are for you:

• You judge if you're running late by how far down Fleet Road you've got before I overtake you in the morning.
• You're one of the butchers who waves at me when I walk past your shop.
• You catch the same bus as me on the days when I can't be bothered walking.
• You were with me back in October when I suddenly stopped half way across the bridge to take the photo that went on to become picture number one.
• You have identified yourself in picture number one because, well, that's where you always stand so it must be you.
• You meet me on the platform every morning and we put the world to rights on our journey up to Waterloo.
• You are one of the people who sits near us and pretends not to listen in.
• You catch the tube with me every time there is a strike and then spend the rest of your life doing something to do with security in Africa.  I don't believe that you work for Barclays, I think you're a spy.
• You work in my office and occasionally appear on the escalator behind me at Waterloo.  It was a team effort working out who you are.
• You catch the bus home with me in the evening and you think I'm some kind of millionaire...who travels on Fleet Buzz.
• You're wondering where I put the carpark - it's big and ugly and I don't like it so I deleted it along with the people who ride their bikes along the platform in the morning.