70 JUNE 2017 http://www.painters-online.co.uk
Seize the moment
A civil engineer, Steve has spent his life in heavy
construction. He started painting three years ago
and says, “I am finally in love with something that I
can do every day. I work from my home in West
Chester, Pennsylvania, just west of Philadelphia. I
am a member of the Pennsylvania Watercolor
Society, the Chester County Art Association, a
signature member of the Philadelphia Watercolor
Society and various other groups around the
country. This particular piece is from a photographSimple beauty
Trevor originally wanted to be a technical
illustrator and learnt about reflections and
how to paint them, which, he says, “led to a
colourful career in advertising art. But
sometimes life has another plan for you,
and I now work at Royal Mail, painting for
pleasure in my spare time and giving
painting demonstrations to art clubs. Last
year, one of my paintings was selected for
the Royal Ulster Academy exhibition.”
Speaking aboutFourteen Circles(left),
Trevor says: “The liquidity of reflections
fascinates me. I was inspired by photorealist
artists, such as David Parish and Scott
Jacobs, and wanted to do a realistic piece
based on the simple beauty of circles. I must
have looked at a thousand chrome hubcaps,
before I designed my own for the
composition. I drew it onto canvas using a
trammel compass then underpainted in
acrylic overlayed with thin coats of oil. I
used cerulean blue, and cobalt blue mixed
with cadmium red to give me grey. Titanium
white tied it all together for the highlights
and the fine circles were put in with an HB
pencil and waterproof fineliner.”T
he paintings I’ve chosen this month demonstrate
that you don’t have to search far for painting
subjects. There’s beauty all around us, much of it in
everyday objects. Both Steve Cole and Trevor
Lawrence have produced beautiful paintings from
seemingly mundane subjects. Here they tell us
about themselves and the inspiration behind these
paintings. If you would like to see more of their
work, post a comment or have a go yourself and
upload your own images to our free online gallery,
visit http://www.painters-online.co.ukOnline gallery
WWW.PAINTERS-ONLINE.CO.UK
Jane Stroud’sselection of works from the PaintersOnline gallery
Steve Cole
Laundry, Newtown,
watercolour, 9^1 ⁄ 2 x 121 ⁄ 2 in.
(24x30.5cm)tTrevor LawrenceFourteen Circles, oil over acrylic on canvas, 22x22in. (56x56cm)
ttaken in quaint Newtown, Pennsylvania, an hour east
of West Chester. I caught this picture on one of my
photo safaris, with the 3pm summer sun slanting
through the backyard trees.”LP June 2017 Online gallery p70_News 1st 06/04/2017 11:08 Page 66