London · 2024
London Big Ben (1/5) is the first in a series of 5 paintings I created during my visit to London.
This piece is part of my collection. Originals will soon be available to buy online — write to me in the meantime.
The subject
The most famous clock in the world stands at the corner of the Houses of Parliament, keeping time over the river. This is my larger, full-colour take on it.
The Elizabeth Tower rises some ninety-six metres above the Thames at Westminster. Its Great Bell was cast in 1858, and for a century and a half the whole tower was known simply as Big Ben; it was formally renamed the Elizabeth Tower in 2012, for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
I painted it as a meeting of warm and cool — ochre and rust climbing the stonework, a bloom of blue spreading behind — with the ink drawing holding the clock, the tracery and the spire in place.
This is one of a small series of five. Each sheet treats the same tower a little differently; together they are a set of variations on a single, very familiar theme.
The tower everyone knows by heart — I tried to paint the feeling of looking up at it, not just its portrait.
The colour is freer than the subject usually allows: washes that bleed and mingle, held together by a confident ink line.
Of the five, this is the fullest in colour — Big Ben in its Sunday best, under a bright, unsettled London sky.
See also · London London Big Ben small · London Big Ben Sensation · London Bridge 1/5