Sunday, 14 June 2026

30x30 Trams 2018-26

Switching from beach scenes to transport for the 30x30 means that I‘ve returned to some subjects I’ve done before. I thought it might be fun to compare them. Let’s start with trams:-

2018

Yes, I was painting trams even as far back 12 2018. I like the composition, but the execution, not so much. But at that time I didn’t know how to do it any better.

2019

This is Lisbon painted in 2019 and I’m sorry but it’s poor. I’m not embarrassed because I know that I was doing the best that I could at the time but I think it’s fair to say that I had yet a long way to go to find my way.

2022

I mean, this is an improvement on 2019, but it’s still very basic. This is a Swansea-Mumbles tram.

2022

With the benefit of hindsight, this 2022 painting was a watershed for me. To me there’s been a huge leap forward since the tram painting the previous year. This painting, more than any other, showed me the way forward and showed me that I was capable ot painting direct watercolour as well as my normal watercolours and acrylics where I sketched the design first. It didn’t mean I would always paint this well, but it did mean that I could strive to get there. This isn’t a perfect painting, I know. The perspective in the tram body is wrong, unfortunately.

2022

I don’t think that this is as good as the one I’d already done in 2022, but it’s still showing the kind of improvement I had made since 2021.

I did not paint another tram in 2023 or 2024

2025

Okay, so it’s a tram that has been parked for good and converted into a café, but it’s one of the very best paintings I did in 2025.

2026

Maybe not as good as the 2025 vintage, but then the subject did invite taking a more impressionistic approach.

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