Top 50 Finalist in The British Art Prize 2024

After several attempts at submitting for art competitions, if you're an artist you know exactly what I mean, I’ve made it to the top 50 finalists of The British Art Prize! I can't believe it - I'm over the moon! My shortlisted painting ‘Driving Home’ will be on display at Gallery@OXO, London

Exhibition: 4th - 8th December, 11am - 6pm Gallery@oxo, Oxo Tower Wharf, Barge House St, London, SE1 9PH

Private View: Thursday 5th December, 6pm - 8pm Gallery@oxo, Oxo Tower Wharf, Barge House St, London, SE1 9PH

BUT I unashamedly need your help! Please vote for me in ‘The People’s Choice Award’ - the winner, with the most public votes, receives a £1000 Caran d’Ache voucher plus a stand-alone feature in the February 2025 issue of Artists & Illustrators, so please get voting and share with all your friends and get them to vote please! ;-)

You only need to submit your name and email:

https://awards.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/vote/?artist=56842

Earlier this year, after work, instead of a walk on the beach, we went for a walk to the Texaco garage! I had a nugget of an idea. When I suggested it to my partner he took it in his stride, quite used to my random ideas.

It occurred one evening on the way back to Newquay, therefore I already had a sense of the angle I wanted to paint and the composition of the painting. Now it was time to get some photos to see if my idea would work.

It’s very important to me when I do a painting that I understand how my subject fits into the world. That I have been in that landscape and have several reference photos from different angles so I can piece together what my memory forgets. It was getting dark but not too dark so I could take good reference photos with the detail I needed.

Standing by the roadside on The Gannel with cars speeding past us, the nugget turned into a fully fledged idea; ‘Driving Home’ was born.

When I do a night painting I always start on the sky first, in acrylic. I’ll get the deep gradient blues from the horizon to the top of the canvas. Once dry I then use water and spray enamel to create the effect of some of the stars, then I also use a splatter approach with a brush, palette knife and white acrylic and water. Once I have the base of my sky I’m ready to sketch in the foreground.

I use a pencil to draw out the main shapes, and block them in to get a feel for how they will work against the sky. Next I dived into the detail of the Texaco garage, you’ll notice I didn’t put the logo on, I wanted it to be recognisable but not branded - I have suggested a hint of a star - which is the logo but also reflects the stars in the sky.

Now I’m working on the canvas as a whole - ensuring all bits fit together visually. I wanted the road to take you into the picture, then the Milky Way, to take your eye on a journey around the canvas.

One of the last steps is to switch all the lights on! The garage, cars and street lights. The reds, yellows and whites popping in contrast to the starry sky and the painting is complete.

I appreciate that it sounds like a straight-forward process, and while there are steps, it’s very much a push and pull process where I’m tweaking, re-doing and finessing. There is usually both excitement and a little bit of artistic torment going on - but overall I’m really pleased with this painting.

My painting has been packaged up ready to go to London! I finished stringing the frame ready to hang, carefully packed into a strong box with foam corner protectors and lots of bubble wrap!