Industry in Abstract Collage

Here is my latest painting for a forthcoming exhibition which collects together my recent abstract representations of Manchester.

This painting harks back to Manchester's industrial past - to a time when Manchester lay at the centre of the world of the industrial revolution.

Interpret it as you will...

I made it intuitively and now looking at it, I can see how I chose colours that I associate with Manchester - the grey of the sky, the concrete and smoke from the factories and the reds and browns of the mills and the houses...

Yellow/orange is a colour I love and yet here it I have used it to suggest something ominous. The collage is made up from pages I have taken from magazines selling opulent and stylish lifestyles to the people who can afford them - I like how the factories are made up of an aristocratic interior - suggesting the wealth of the factory owners.

I based the composition on a drawing I did during a break at work.

Recently I've been taking my thumbnail sketchbook to work so I can do some drawing in my break.

My idea was to try and draw lots of little sketches of industry scenes so that at some point I'd instinctively know roughly what these scenes look and feel like and I'd be able to create my own abstract versions from imagination.

Hope you enjoyed this... let me know what you think.