Flower Seller 2 Columbia Road Flower Market

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Dimensions: 107×102 cms

Media: Acrylic paint charcoal and chalk on canvas

Year: 2003

Sold: Yes

Private Collection

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June 2003, and I’d just completed the second of my Columbia Road flower market paintings from sketches made in the market.

I remember seeing the old fellow collecting funds for ex servicemen who used to sit at the end of the street and straightaway I knew he needed to be in the painting.

Back then, I couldn’t layer figures in the way that I can now. When I tried to layer a crowd, then I’d lose the movement and energy I was trying to capture, something that still happens between street sketchbook and studio. With each painting I make, I try different ways to group figures that feels as close to my memories of the scene as I’m able to get within the limitations of space and canvas dimensions.

The first Columbia Road flowerseller painting is a central portrait with figures grouped around it.

This next painting aimed at more interaction. The market trader is calling out for a last sale, to passers by, to the viewer, just as the market was closing. I remember I loved painting the flowers. The dog was a late addition. I’m not good at painting dogs.