Hello!
My travels to England thus far may have been brief - we're talking 3 days in London, but my gosh it left an impression. With a friend as a local to show me around I hit the most charming neighbourhoods, opting to forego the London Eye and Buckingham Place for the streets of Notting Hill and Ravenscroft Park.
Down every street you turn you're greeted by the most aesthetically pleasing architecture. Symmetrical and running in straight (or slightly curved) lines, but each unit has its own story, its own character, just singing in harmony with its neighbour.
Ever since my first trip to Europe when I was 17 there always been something that's pleased me about symmetrical architecture that has character.
I perhaps find it so fascinating because it's somewhat a rarity in Australia, we simply don't have that level of heritage spanning our towns and cities.
It's not that we have succumbed to a level of monotony, building something with character costs money, something many of us rightly need to prioritise elsewhere in the current economy.
And so perhaps we can find that character in small things like this artwork, creating an energy to our space by the things we put in it, if we can't shape the space itself.
As a life-long markets lover I adored Notting Hill, being able to wander and simply admire the architecture, small shops and enjoy the space with a dear friend.
The question I posed to her and I'll ask you now is this; If you could have one of these houses on Notting Hill, what colour would you paint it and why?
Watercolour on paper
35cm x 20cm
$210