Late summer.

acrylic on canvas 15cm x 15cm.

It still seemed like the last days of summer today so I sat in the garden and painted the geraniums and roses before the grey sets in.

Liverpool painting No. 127. Regent Road II

21cm 14cm acrylic on canvas.

Always fancied doing a companion piece for Bramley Moore Dock that I did some time ago on the same stretch of dock road warehouses and harbours.

Liverpool painting No. 105. Berry Street

20cm x 14cm acrylic on canvas, £90

Upstairs in the first building on the left was where I had my first studio in town about 10 years ago, it's a chinese restaurant now. The city is full of snow and slush but I painted this at home...in the warm.

Liverpool painting No. 103. Earle Road.

Acrylic on canvas board 20cm x 14cm, £90

Not long after being here a fat man in a Santa suit crossed Smithdown Road giving traffic the finger...tis the season to be jolly. Came across another site in London that I regularly drop in on. Olha Pryymak (London, UK) paints her city in much the same way as I have been out and about in Liverpool. You can see more of her good work on http://olechko.org/

Liverpool painting No.101. Oxford Road

20cm x 14cm, acrylic on canvas board

Just down the road from painting No 100 sits The Oxford pub. I pass this lone building most days as it stands with the whole block to itself. I've never been inside but here's a review, for more go to http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/the-oxford-liverpool

Ever since I caught the wrong bus to university one day and rolled past the Oxford pub, I've wanted to visit it and soak in its inevitable weirdness. Seemingly the sole survivor of some catastrophe that wiped out everything else on Oxford Street, the building stands all on its lonesome with only a small path and few trees to keep it company.

Liverpool painting No 99. Upper Parliament street

Acrylic on canvas 21cm x 14cm, £90

Decided to try a night painting of Toxteth Library, and work from photos to get the soft blurred edges of a moving van. I dont care how fast you paint, you aint gonna get one done as it flies past.

Liverpool painting No 97. Grafton Street.

SOLD

21cm x 14cm acrylic on canvas board, £90.

First thing on a cold crisp morning and Cain’s Brewery was belching backlit smoke like a dark satanic mill. From the 3^rd floor of the studio opposite the brewery I could see plumes of smoke all over the city and across the river on the Wirral. The city was coming to life as the night turned to day.

Liverpool painting No,96. Rathbone Road.

Acrylic on canvas board 21cm x 14cm, £90

White van, terrace house and the flag of St. George for England v France.

Liverpool painting No.95. Rathbone Road.

Acrylic on canvas board 21cm x 14cm, £90

Liverpool painting No. 91. Lime Street

21cm x 14cm acrylic on canvas board. £90

Liverpool painting No. 90. Hackins Hey

21cm x 14cm acrylic on canvas board, £90.

Liverpool painting No. 87. King Street.

Acrylic on canvas board. 21cm x 14cm

Took a few hours around the Garston area today. It never ceases to amaze me how many places I've never been to or seen before. I was in search of Oglet shore...I've never heard of it, so I had to root it out. I found this scene just down the road. There are lots north shore locations that look quiet and deserve a visit so I think I'll be going back in the future. More on Oglet next post.

http://www.merseyestuary.org.uk/index_files/NorthShore.html

Liverpool painting No. 86. Edge Lane .

Acrylic on board. 21cm x 14cm

The corner of Durning road. Companion piece for painting No. 85

Liverpool painting No. 84. Northway allotments.

21cm x 14cm Acrylic on canvas board

The allotments at the back of my house coming to life first thing this morning. These particular plots back onto the railway and always remind me of a of a time gone by…dig for victory etc.

During the First World War Germany's blockade caused food shortages which increased the demand for allotments. One source of land suitable for allotments but not large enough for general agricultural use was the land owned by railway companies. These parcels of land were often allotted to the railway workers and this is the reason that you will often see allotments by railway lines today.

http://www.allotment.org.uk/articles/Allotment-History.php

Liverpool painting No. 82. Castle Street

Watercolour 21cm x 14cm.

Castle Street would have led down to Liverpool castle on the site of the Queen Victoria memorial in Derby Square. It is one of the seven original streets of Liverpool. By the 19th century it was home to the commercial quarter of Liverpool and has many fine buildings which were either banks or insurance headquarters. At its head standsLiverpool Town Hall.
Another one of Liverpools original seven streets.

http://www.visitliverpool.com/site/heritage/ancestry/people-and-places/liverpool-streets

Liverpool painting No. 80. Brookland Road West.

Watercolour 21cm x 14cm

Liverpool painting No. 78. Smithdown Road.

Acrylic on canvas board 21cm x 14cm

Liverpool painting No. 77. Stalbridge Avenue

21cm x 14cm Acrylic on canvas board

Liverpool painting No. 74. Lime Street

Lime Street, 21cm x 14cm.

In May of this year I began a year-long journey attempting to capture the city of Liverpool in paint. I’m taking to heart the words of French poet and philosopher, Gaston Bachelard, who said:

“Each of us should make a surveyors map of his lost fields and meadows. . . these drawings need not be exact but they need to be written according to the shapes of our inner landscapes.”

And so, I decided to map my own fields and meadows—metaphorically speaking, of course, since this is a city. Working from life and from the studio, my goal is to finish 15 to 20 small paintings per month. I hope to reach 200, by the end of the project.

Read more on

http://emptyeasel.com/2010/09/24/may-i-start-may-i-finish/

Liverpool painting No.73. William Brown Street.

I seem to remember playing in this when I was a kid and the fountain was drier than South Wales on a Sunday. It was full of dust and leaves back then. Thanks to the Seven Streets site for doing a full page spread about the, 'May I Start, May I Finish', project. Take a look at the site on http://www.sevenstreets.com/art-and-creativity/art-and-creativity-profile/history-in-the-making-steve-strode/