ABOUT ME
Darren Evans
I have drawn and painted for as long as I can remember. It was the only thing that kept me quiet as a kid and I think the same is pretty much true now.
I have always loved buildings and how people interact with them and ended up studying architecture at St. John's College in Cambridge.
I am fascinated by how people build deep relationships with buildings and places and I try to capture different aspects of those feelings in my paintings.
I have always worked in watercolour and love how versatile a medium it is. You'll see different styles of painting here, from a quite tight, illustrational style for some of the building portraits through to a looser use for some of the more ethereal cityscapes.
I see my artwork in three broad and overlapping categories:
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Building portraits
People develop strong relationships with the built environment that surrounds them and buildings take on an emotional significance, whether it is an old house, a school, a church, a favourite pub, restaurant or hotel these buildings have a resonance for people and I love to capture this.
I use different styles varying between more traditional, precise watercolour painting to looser ink drawings with watercolour wash to almost abstract images. I vary the style depending upon the building and what feels appropriate for the subject.
My first paint set
Life Stories
In these paintings I capture a series of buildings or places that are important to someone. This can be the houses that someone has lived it throughout their life or their favourite places or the whole street that they grew up on. These are tight ink drawings with watercolour illustrations because I am trying to include a lot of information. The one below shows my favourite part of Wolverhampton where I grew up.
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Landscapes and Cityscapes
I like to paint large landscapes and cityscapes and try to capture the essence of an area, either as a collage or in a slightly abstracted way. These are generally very large for watercolour paintings - over a metre wide. I like to apply lots of layers and build up depth and forms through many layers of translucent washes.
