Here’s a little paper-cut painting of the Brixton Academy… with a new electric twist. This was a self initiated piece and an excuse to experiment. It also made a nice warm up; as I have a couple of privately commissioned dioramas to work on in the next few weeks.
The subject is the South London music venue, the O2 Brixton Academy. Originally opened in 1929 as a cinema; converted into a discotheque in 1972 and finally reborn as a concert hall in 1983.
I’ve made my theatrical version with acrylic and ink on paper… layered from the background with some collage elements in the signs and windows. It’s set within a deep box frame, approx 25cm square. At the heart of the painting i’ve placed a LED light that can be plugged in and illuminated. It’s a long cord too, so it would make interesting focal point on a wall… as well as a shelf/mantle artwork.
This is a style i’ve worked with quite a bit over the last couple of years (You can see my various cut paper experiments here: #paperdiorama). They seem to work best for city scenes and building studies but this is the first time i’ve incorporated a working light into the framing… it’s not a bad first attempt and I have a couple of other ideas that might work well with this addition… but what do you think?