New way of living, Normal, I settled on Nice.
When we were allowed back out there were signs everywhere in Peterborough and presumably many other cities reminding people to stay two metres apart for social distancing. In Peterborough many of the signs said Nice 2metres you. I thought that was a very obvious yet subtle, clever message.
Something drew me to painting this with stronger colours than I usually do. Gone is the ‘parisienne’ feel that some say I give to Peterborough in many of my bench views. Now I’m working my way through so many illustrations which were drawn and not painted, I’ve noticed the style of final colours and choices of decoration depend on my mood and probably also the weather. It’s creating a series which is rather different, to me, than the original Bench Views I painted 2014/15 when many of those were finished in situ.
Every now and then there’s an image which captures peoples imagination. This one seems to be one of those. I showed it at open studios last year and got great feedback. Not sure what you’ll think of it. If you’re not aware, Peterborough’s got three of Anthony Gormley’s statues which pose on rooftops these days and one of them makes an appearance here. As do I actually.. I love it when I realise I can add my reflection in while I draw.
My theme for A to Z Blogging Challenge is my Bench Views Revisited illustrations done from benches in and around Peterborough UK which I started in September 2019. I drew No. 88 in February 2020 then lockdown hit. I restarted the series in August 2020 which meant almost half the series were drawn pre-covid lockdown and the rest of the 190 illustrations were done post COVID-19 lockdown.
lynnelives 
I’m liking the stronger colours in this one.
I’d love to see your sketches in Paris if you lived there, that would be very cool.
Thanks Dino, I never lived in Paris, I’ve had comments that some of my early Peterborough Bench Views made it look like Paris.
I like the colours here too. Was the statue in London first? I remember seeing one or two there a long time ago.
He’s got statues all over the place as far as I’m aware. There’s three in Peterborough which i think were commissioned direct from the artist rather a long time ago.
The drawing emphasizes locked down life quite well. I like how you stressed on mental well-being and the two metre distance.
Dropping by from a to z http://afshan-shaik.blogspot.com/
Thanks for the comments. Having so many unfinished paintings has also been playing on my mind and one of the main reasons for doing AtoZ was to push myself to finish them. There’s not many that I’ve finished that have these bold strong colours, I wonder what mood I was in when I painted it.