Thursday 22 November 2012

Long Time No Post: Stonegate

I nearly didn't post this painting because after I had finished painting it, and spent ages over it, I found that I don't actually like it. I need to be a bit more ruthless sometimes, I think, and be prepared to stop when I don't like what I'm doing. The problem is, most paintings go through a stage where I don't like them. As I regularly tell the students; you have to try to look beyond where you're at, and visualise the finished piece.
It can be very difficult scrapping something that you have invested time in. I'm the same reading books - I'll get so far into a book, decide it's not for me...but I've got to finish it!
This is a painting of the corner of Blake Street and Stonegate.
Apparently 6 feet under Stonegate lies the Roman Via Praetoria, the road that connected the basilica at the centre of the fortress to the bridge over the river Ouse and, therefore, the civilian settlement on the other side. Francis Drake, in 1736, records the name coming from the amount of stone that made it's way down Stonegate as they built the minster.