I’m lucky enough to see lots of variety in the scenes I’m commissioned for. But there are occasions when I have been asked to recreate a scene. This one came quite quickly after last month’s initial Matcham study of The London Palladium. Created for the press night opening of ‘Hello, Dolly!’ Which returns to the stage at LW Theatres with Imelda Staunton in the lead role. This new painting used the same vantage point worked on previously. But without the pink and purple night lighting. We decided the colouring should be more ‘natural’ this time around. There’s still plenty of warm glow from the interior… and I cut in the show posters and entrance screen to build plenty of layered detail. Everything was set within a deep box frame and each layer was raised from a black backing paper for that theatrical presentation and effect.

There was an extra requirement for this commission, as we also needed two reproductions printing and cutting (A total of one original and two hand cut reproductions as gifts). So more preparation and some careful scanning of each painted layer. I’m very pleased with the results though. The prints were done on a good stiff paper and handled brilliantly when carved out. I used the same heights and layers as on the original artwork and it was (at first glance anyway) difficult to see the difference between them. The first two photos above are the Original. The two below are prints. Can you see the difference?

Hello, Dolly! Details

Do feel free to leave me a comment and let me know what you think of this latest London Palladium painting (and prints!). And a big thank you once again to Emma for commissioning my cut-outs! If you’d like to work with me on a similar project, please get in touch.