"Radcliffe Camera and St. Mary's, Oxford"

       The Radcliffe Camera in Oxford is an irresistible subject for me. One of the finest buildings in the world, and a challenging perspective to attempt freehand. This angle is from Catte Street, and shows the church of St Mary the Virgin behind. I have tried to leave the painting understated and in doing so have deliberately lost the ground level so that the buildings float upwards like castles in the air. Perhaps that's how I see them, I'm always looking upwards in Oxford, away from the human activities at ground level towards the timeless and abstract.

       As always I did a little 'atmospheric' sketch in my small pocket moleskin, as I wanted to explore the colours I might use, and perhaps as importantly, to fire myself up with a mini-preview of my own work! I still like my little exploratory sketches as much as anything.

The Radcliffe Camera, Oxford

I return to Oxford again and again to paint as I love architectural subjects, and Oxford contains some of the finest buildings in the world. I’m not sure this painting is completely finished yet, but with watercolour it’s usually best to stop while you’re winning, and not overwork a subject. Why the angle chosen in the picture? When you approach Radcliffe Square from the High, through a narrow pedestrian lane, the Camera is suddenly there in front of you, and I wanted to evoke the ‘impact’ it has when you first round the corner and look up.

I’ve just suggested the Bodleian Library in the background. I’m never certain a painting has ‘worked’ when I’ve just finished it, but I certainly enjoyed working on it, and that’s important to me!

The Radcliffe Camera was designed in the English Palladian Style by James Gibbs between 1737 and 1748, and is believed to have been the first circular library to be built in England.