Limehouse Blues

About the painting

Limehouse Blues is a large sized abstract painting that features lime green and a blue as its primary colours. Around this I have built a complimentary supporting cast of yellow, orange and turquoise which have been topped off with a sprinkling of magenta, purple and white.

I would reference the style of the painting as a fluid one. Unlike the thousands of YouTube videos of paint pouring demonstrations, my take is somewhat unorthodox and consists of me pouring un-thinned paint onto the canvas and then maneuvering it around with various tools before dousing it with solvent thinners. This is how I get the paint to move and flow once I have it on the positions I desire.

On top of that I also add a spray of something I call special sauce. It’s a potent combination of four chemicals (that I still can’t pronounce) that creates all kinds of wonderful detailed effects on the canvas – including the formation of cells and the dispersal of paint. No one else on the planet has this and so it remains another unique feature of my work.

A great title with a great history

Naming the painting was easy as it’s a reference back to a song first performed in 1921. With its origins in the Limehouse district of London after the Great War it has since been covered and performed in hundreds of different ways with both instrumental and vocal versions becoming popular.

The version I first heard many years ago was by guitar legend Django Reinhardt. Despite losing the use of two fingers of his left hand during a fire, he pioneered the jazz guitar and to this day remains a fundamental cornerstone of the movement through the incredible technique he developed. Power chords, vibrato, string skipping, bending and pinch harmonics  – way before the shredders of the modern era were even born! Listening to this track never gets old. Hear it for yourself if you don’t believe me.

Details and features

They are everywhere! This style and technique of painting lends itself to producing the most incredible levels of detail. Some of the photos here will show you what I mean but you really have to experience that for yourself by standing in front of it.

it really is a masterclass on how to infuse every inch of canvas with its own drama and personality and you don’t necessarily have to be a lover of lime green and blue to appreciate that or to get on with it. The painting carries itself through the realms of likeability by its sheer presence. It’s remarkably easy to live with and adds an effortless focal point to any space it hangs in.