Railings!! - dealing with unsightly themes.

One of my dislikes in watercolour painting is railings and municipal street furniture, i.e; posts, ropes, bollards, railings, bins and parked cars (although not all cars are ugly!)

Issues like trying to calculate the distance between the posts in the railings, the perspective and vanishing point of them, and painting the lines with a fine paintbrush. Sometimes the railings can be painted with the end of a card, other times I used artistic licence and remove the offending objects altogether.

I watched the Landscape Artist of the Year final on Sky Arts where a contestant tried to paint a boat and it sailed away! She then continued to paint a cluster of bridges, ropes, gaps between the bridge, railings and tall buildings. It looked very challenging and stressful but inspired me to take a different angle on taxing and boring topics. She handled the painting well and it was a success.

On an urban sketching day I attempted to deliberately choose a cluttered scene in New Brighton with its familiar bobble headed railings, lamp-posts, bins and posts. I liked the way it enabled me to see things differently and notice spatial awareness rather than copying a photograph.

I like the Victorian shelter but will attempt that on another day.

Pics:

left to right: Wilkie's Fairground, New Brighton

Simple urban sketch of promenade

Anchor - Egremont

Egremont Promenade