Tate Liverpool summer school

Here is a link to the Tate Liverpool summer school I am thrilled to be leading in July. Theme is (unsurprisingly!) 'drawing the city'. It coincides with the Nasreen Mohemedi and Modrian exhibitions and will include gallery talks and visits. The morning will be based at the Tate and the afternoons will be spent out on sketchcrawls around the city. http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/courses-and-workshops/drawing-city

As a companion event Urban Sketchers Manchester will be partaking in the 44th Worldwide SketchCrawl on Saturday July 12th and visiting Liverpool, starting outside the Tate at 11am. Full details and itinerary to be published in due course.

Mann Island, Liverpool

As part of a visit to Liverpool Biennial with our students on Wednesday, we walked down to the Tate at the Albert Dock, and it was really interesting to revisit the view I had painted last year from unfinished photographs of Mann Island - a new commercial development by architects Broadway Malyan. I was quite surprised, and rather pleased, at how similar the painting and photograph were. 

The reason I am so drawn to this view, is the complexity and layering of the city...dock, ferry, Victorian building, modern architecture at its most inscrutable (as an architect I really like it, but can appreciate it has had a mixed reaction from the general public) - and the stunning backdrop of Liverpool's Three Graces. I actually have quite an emotional response to this view and would really like to do some more paintings in this area. If our Urban Sketchers group gets off the ground, I'll definitely organise a Liverpool day-out!

Mann Island, Liverpool October 2012

Liverpool skyline, painted 2011