Ben Johnson's Liverpool Cityscape 2008 and the World Panorama Series
Exhibition held at the Walker Art Gallery, 24 May 2008 - 2 November 2008, free admission.
Detail from the Liverpool Cityscape. You can see and look around the full painting in the interactive.
Ben Johnson was commissioned to create The Liverpool Cityscape for 2008. He started painting in 2005. It took him over three years to paint, working mainly in his London studio with 11 assistants. To prepare, he visited Liverpool, found the best viewpoints, studied the architecture, talked to local experts, made drawings and took over 3,000 photographs.
Each featured building was 'drawn' on a computer. Combined, these drawings created an actual size 'plan' of the painting. Every drawing was analysed and broken down to create several separate stencils for each building: for the brickwork, the window frames, the glass, and so on. The stencils were carefully applied to the canvas using 'notches' to position them exactly.
The painting was carried out using hand-mixed acrylic paints applied with spray-guns through the stencils. The final touching-in of tiny areas of bare canvas was carried out using a fine paint brush.
Johnson completed the Cityscape in a public residency here at the Walker Art Gallery in early 2008.
The painting is now part of the permanent collection at the Walker Art Gallery. It will eventually be displayed at the new Museum of Liverpool, currently under construction at Mann Island.
© Ben Johnson 2008. All Rights Reserved. DACS