PETER BROWNPETER BROWN

inside front cover detail (no. 61)

Plage Le Royau: Boules, Gassing and Knitting, 2014

cover detail (no. 7)

Notre-Dame from Pont Saint-Louis, March 2014

1. Winter Sun, Portobello Road (The Electric Cinema), 2014oil on canvas 51 x 102 cms 20 x 40 ins

22nd January 2014This date is all I’ve written on the back of this canvas, painted over several sittings as they finally took down the Christmas decorations. My initial intention was to paint the peachy winter-sun sparkle on the stalls and ironwork. But when I work on the street (and the sun is actually out), I need to block the light from coming through the canvas, so I always place two of the same size back-to-back on the easel. When the weather inevitably turned, I flipped the ‘sunny’ version over to work on the other one.

2. Winter Rain, Portobello Road (The Electric Cinema), 2014oil on canvas 51 x 102 cms 20 x 40 ins

40. Sunset over Pont des Arts, 2014oil on board 15 x 31 cms 6 x 12 ins

24th June I spent the evening from sunset to darkness wandering the bridges and banks of the Seine. They were littered with couples and groups of young people picnicking, drinking, gassing, just enjoying the buskers and the warm evening. It was depressing. I reckon Paris is best with your missus; it’s not so great on your own ... But I noted a sunset and a night scene. I decided to do the sunset; the days are long enough and the night scene can wait.

43. Rue Saint-André des Arts, Midday, 2014oil on canvas 51 x 41 cms 20 x 16 ins

23rd June, between 11am and 1pm This was the first painting of my third trip. I’d had a grim departure, awaiting the windscreen people to replace the window that’d been smashed. I had left late on Sunday afternoon, so I got up at 8am and stayed local. When the sun had moved around too far, I started another from the same spot. Then Julien arrived and he treated me to lunch at the pub. Later that day, while carrying this canvas on my easel, an American named Bob walked up to me and, by way of introduction, excitedly declared that he and I painted “exactly the same”.