Painting “Wigginton Road in Summer”
Studio Painting – Oil on Canvas
This City of York oil painting shows one of the many distinct roads leading to the city's centre
Like many of the approaches to the historic heart of this town, the Minster can be seen for miles before you arrive.
Wigginton Road radiates from York city centre, past the hospital and Bootham Stray, heading north to the village of Wigginton and Haxby. It's a busy main road that's best avoided when hospital visiting is in full swing.
York is a beautiful city in the middle of the biggest county in the UK: Yorkshire.
It's best known for its ancient architecture and long history, alternatively named Jorvik (Viking) and Eboracum (Roman), during its existence.
What's not always recognised is the amount of trees lining numerous roads, filling the city's parks, and enriching the banks along the river Ouse – a walk worth doing, should you visit.
Rich with detail on softly modelled foliage and full of summer sunshine lighting leaves and casting shadows, the oil painting reflects a warm and relatively quiet summers day. Despite the city all around, a blackbird perches in a tree, a squirrel scampers along a branch, and birds fly overhead. This is the city I know and love.
It was an interesting painting to make, because it's a mix of landscape art and city art which was unusual for me at the time. I've since become fascinated by green spaces in cities. So I've painted a number of such paintings since this.