RAINY NIGHT

Acrylic Painting on Canvas, 2014.
Size (H x W): 24" x 36"
Impressions Series.
 
One year after the stock market crash of October 1987 I withdrew a small specialist equity market-making operation from the London Stock Exchange and took a job as an economist in Cambridge. It was a lonely time away from home during the week. My first-floor office looked out to Regent Street, Cambridge below. Though not literal, this painting evokes the atmosphere of those times: melancholy wet winter evenings in an almost deserted City Centre. The romantic figures lingering outside a restaurant are perhaps a source of envy. 
 
This street scene with one vanishing point was completed at the South Bank Arts' Centre, Bedford College. It reimagines a work by Afremov, a popular Russian-Israeli impressionistic artist who worked with palette knives and oils but uses acrylics and brushes to create an English rather than continental scene. I particularly enjoyed working on the reflections. Flying dabs of colour create a bokeh effect beloved by photographers. The ornate lamps are quite characteristic of the Bedford riverside.