The Ten Bells and the Town House Open 2024

I am happy to say that my painting of The Ten Bells will be included in part one of the Town House Open 2024 exhibition which will run from 6th to 28th July. I am proud to have my work displayed alongside other talented artists and highly recommend a visit (the coffee and home made cakes are splendid!).

In the past I have concentrated on painting old London buildings because I am interested in their design and history, especially in the Spitalfields and East End areas of London. I am interested in capturing the transformation of London’s urban landscape and remembering its links with the past.

Artistic development is important to me and I have recently been experimenting by drawing more and using watercolour paints for the first time. I love using colour and my paintings of buildings are usually unintentionally vibrant. Whilst painting I do not realise that I’m being drawn to pick bright shades of colour, sometimes I try to tone things down but I can’t help it, it’s how I see the world.

My observations of everyday life in London have inspired me to start including people in my paintings. I am keen to capture the human element within the London scenes that I paint and I have been practicing drawing and painting figures.

I recently finished a painting of the Ten Bells pub in Spitalfields that has a lively evening crowd outside it. I wanted to capture the movement and atmosphere of people interacting together and also include some of the pub’s outside decoration. I love the filigree wrought iron work above the front door and the ornate dull gold columns that decorate the outside. Spitalfields market is opposite the pub and a subtle reflection in the windows hints at this. Whilst studying the crowd it struck me how many people wear ‘uniforms’ – nearly everyone is wearing the same colours or style of clothes. I loved painting this and it has inspired me to paint more people in my London scenes.

The Ten Bells is in Commercial Street on the corner of Fournier Street and Hawksmoor’s Christ Church is located opposite. The pub was built sometime after 1851 by local brewers Truman Hanbury & Buxton, however a public house has stood on this site since the middle of the century. The Industrial Revolution, Jack the Ripper, two World Wars, the closure of Spitalfields Markets, the Yuppie boom of the 1980s to gentrification – this pub has seen a lot!

Town House is located at 5 Fournier Street, Spitalfields, E1 and the Ten Bells is at number 84 Commercial Street and is on the corner of Fournier Street.