Ealing Paintings and Sketches

I've been painting more watercolours. Up to 2022 I rarely painted watercolours other than the annual 30x30 direct watercolour challenge in June. In 2022 I was so pleased with some of the direct watercolours I managed to produce that I've kept on working in watercolour hand in hand with my sketching ever since. The watercolours began with four bus and tram paintings.

607 Trolleybus on the way to Hayes end via Hanwell. This isn't one of my original four paintings, but was made in March 2023

St. Mary's - March 2023. The parish church of Ealing. I know that St. Mary's with its assymetrical tower isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I've always liked the building.

Hanwell - Grand Union Canal Towpath - a direct watercolour. I like the brickwork, shame about everything else in this. February 2023 Sometimes it comes off and sometimes it doesn't.

Ealing Broadway c. 1930s. I used a more muted, subtle palette for this. I don't think I've quite got exactly where I want to be with this. but I'm not unhappy with what I achieved with this more limited, softer palette. February 2023

This is the Church of Our Lady and St. Joseph in Hanwell. It seems stage to call something that is over fifty years old 'modern' architecture, but then in terms of churches a whole different timescale applies. I've always rather liked this one. February 2023

This is the Himalaya Palace CInema in Southall. Sadly it is no longer a cinema. It's the only cinema in the UK of this particular design. 2022

Small Work Horse - a statue by Judith Blick unveiled in Ealing Broadway Centre by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1985. Painted in January 2022

This is the fourth of my original four bus and tram paintings. It shows Ealing Broadway in the first decade of the 20th century, not long after the London United Tramways came to Ealing. The main building - the Foster Bros shop - is still there, still looks very similar to the way it did, although it's now a branch of Wenzel's Bakery. Painted summer 2022

This was the third of the original four bus and tram paintings. It depicts the most modern bus, a 207 Routemaster. This would have been about the mid 1980s, which ironically was when I moved away from Ealing. The routemaster is still THE London bus to people of my generation and older. This is how I remember West Ealing. Painted summer 2022

This is based on one of a series of postcards made for Ealing libraries in the 70s. It shows a Type B Bus in Acton High Street in the 1910s. The Type B was the first really successful motor bus used in London. It was my first painting with a new paintbox, and I look at it now and think that the red of the bus is just a little too crimson. Live and learn. The main building on the right is the King's Arms pub, which is still there, but looks quite different now. My father grew up in Acton, although I know Hanwell and West Ealing a lot better than I know Acton. Painted July 2022

This was the first of this set of Ealing transport paintings. The trolleybuses replaced the trams in the 30s, and they themselves left Ealing's streets in about 1960. This is just past the Town Hall, and the scene with the shops on the right is still recognisable today. Painted July 2022

I enjoyed painting these four public transport paintings so much that I've painted several more Ealing paintings since.

The Grand Union Canal at Hanwell. Painted in summer 2022. I usually just sell prints of my paintings and keep the originals. But the very nice man I sold this one to really wanted the original, and let's be honest, I'm a pushover for enthusiasm.

SOLD

Uxbridge Road West Ealing c. 1980. This again is how I remember West Ealing. Painted August 2022. Like the Acton bus painting, this is based on a black and white image from a postcard sold in Ealing libraries in the 1970s. I painted the car on the left in a very bronzey 70s colour.

West Ealing Library - Melbourne Avenue. Demolished about 1980 for new Sainsburys, which contained a brand new library. Very important place to me. It was the first place I was ever allowed to walk to on my own. Helped develop a love of reading which saw me take a degree in English Literature in the 1980s at London University. Painted August 2022

Parkers Bakery was at one time a chain with several shops in the borough. Northfields Avenue here was the last, but sadly closed a few years ago. I have had things from bakeries across Europe that were as nice as a Parkers fresh crusty roll. I've never had anything that's nicer, though. Painted August 2022

Uxbridge Road West Ealing. It must be in the early or mid noughties, since Woolworths is still open. The Woolworth's building with its art deco facade was a West Ealing landmark until it was demolished a few years ago despite the protests of many local people. Painted August 2022.

Hanwell Coronation Clock - erected in 1937. A few decades ago there was a movement to have this landmark removed. Thankfully it came to nothing. Hanwell was my first home, and I lived there until moving away to University, from 1964 until 1986. This was painted in August 2022. July and August 2022 was when I produced many of these watercolours - coinciding with the long school holiday, you see.

I've made a number of sketches of Ealing, the London Borough where I grew up. As with all my artwork, please do not print or use any of these pictures without asking my permission. If you'd like to buy a print of any of them, you can visit my Etsy shop - DaveClark Port Talbot Etsy Shop 0r if you can't find it there, email me at londinius@yahoo.co.uk

Ealing Town Hall

Hanwell Clock

Small Work Horse Statue Ealing Broadway Centre

Trolleybus on Uxbridge Road - this was based on the same black and white postcard that I would later use for the watercolour above.

St. Mary's Church Ealing

Northfields Odeon Cinema

Ealing Park Tavern

Hanwell Lock Keeper's Cottage

ABC (Forum) Cinema

The Foresters Leighton Road

The Grosvenor Oaklands Road

Gunnersbury Tavern Popes Lane

The Halfway House, Uxbridge Road

The North Star, Ealing Broadway

The Old Hat, Uxbridge Road

Red Lion St. Mary's Road

The Plough, Northfields

Red Lion Hanwell

The Royal, Boston Road

Tram and Type B Bus in Acton High Street - yes, this was based on the same black and white postcard that I would later use to make the watercolour above.