Construction projects, UK

31 months at Boston Manor, The building of GSK new headquarters 2000-2001
Fibreglass relief painted in oils 224 x 130cms

(Above) image records the building of GSK new headquarters in London. For a year I had a small pre fab unit/studio in the middle of the construction site where I would make lots of sketches & take photographs. I became a familiar face on site & got to know many of the workers, all of the characters are based on real people. The white architects plan in the centre of the relief was modelled in low relief as the starting point for the composition, then the relief was built up higher around its edges recording construction processes & activities that happened in those actual locations on the map. The army like scene of workers in hard hats & yellow jackets are entering the site at the point where the main entrance was located. Designing large reliefs is like piecing together a giant jigsaw of images, so often maps & aerial plans become the starting point.

Royal Bank of Scotland New Headquarters Edinburgh, the construction team offices for MACE
Fibreglass relief painted in oils 96 x 66cms

(Above) is an office scene of the construction team. As always some people were happier with the way they looked, or where they were placed than others. Designing the composition & fitting in all the people is always a huge challenge & usually involves office politics, who to to keep in the relief & where they are placed. I have a tendency, not deliberate, to make the least important people appear high profile, as they often tend to be the most colourful. Whenever possible I try to spend as much time in the actual environment, as its the small details that make the images come alive, like the things people have on their desks, the way people sit at their computers & interact, all help in putting together the final composition. The most difficult commissions are to work from publicity shots of people staring directly at the camera smiling with no background.

Excavation, fibreglass relief in oils 96 x 66cms, 2005

(Left) This was the first of a series of 8 smaller reliefs recording the various stages as the new RBS headquarters was being built. This was the early excavation of the site or buildings footprint as they call it. Construction is a great subject to depict in Bas-relief & working in clay or mud seemes very appropriate, areas are cast with actual rock & mud from the site.

Main entrance, Gogarburn
96x66cms painted in oils.

Relief (left) shows the main workers entrance to the new RBS construction site, with the canteen lower right of the image, with the big blue umbrellas. This was part of a series of 8 small panels that told the story of the construction processes, from excavation to part completion.

Installing the Glass roof, over the main internal street.
Fibreglass relief 96 x 66cms painted in oils. 2005

(Right) This was a technically challenging piece, especially the detailed ceiling. Modelling the straight lines, lots of small plastic tubes & sticks from modelling shops were used & pressed into the clay to help with the structure. On site it was fascinating to watch the way the glass panels were put in place, large glass panes were lifted on the tall cranes by a suction machine with four rubber suction heads that would be attached to the glass & carefully lowered into position. I've showed the view from underneath the glass & above at different stages. All the reliefs play with scale & perspectives to enable multiple images & a way of telling a story in one image. The Edinburgh dark overcast skies were a great subject to paint with the contrast of the brightly coloured workers jackets & luminous equipment.