Dominic Draws

St Paul's Cathedral • 8x10" • gouache on Crescent illustration board

I was commissioned late last year by a follower to paint a couple of paintings as mementos of her wedding. One of those paintings was to be of St Paul's and I immediately jumped at the chance - I'd never tackled the Cathedral before, but seeing as I'd painted Flinders Street Station just a couple months before and lived to tell the tale, how much harder could it be? Turns out, I had to paint from Flinders Street Station to get the best vantage point, and I forgot how much busier (and distracting) it would be! I ended up tucking myself in a corner with my back to a column to try to keep out of everyone's way, and I managed to get a decent block-in before nightfall! It still took a bit of work in the studio to get the architectural details right and to really nail the feel of golden hour light on the steeples. I also added one of the iconic City Circle trams passing by on the bottom right, which I think, while a bit quaint, adds to the painting's Melburnian flavour! Stay tuned for the second painting in the next post!

A new post to ring in the new year, and it's my first plein air painting in a long while! I actually painted this late in December while I was wandering around Collingwood. I chanced upon the golden hour light sifting through a tree and falling across the road in gleaming shards, which informed the unusual (for me anyway!) composition on a 4x8" sheet of cold press watercolour paper. Here's to the first of many more paintings to come this year!
🎨