Sally Booth Gallery
Paintings and Drawings
This section contains examples of painting and drawing projects and commissions.
Here are some of my Degas Red series, one of which was selected to go in a vitrine as part of the “Not Born Yesterday Not Going Away” exhibition at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto.
Fast Sky with Orange and Red, 2022Acrylic on watercolour paper, 55.88 x 76.2 cm
In landscape orientation, this large painting on thick, rough textured paper with ragged edges depicts both dramatic weather and landscape.
In the foreground and taking up the bottom third of the picture are red cliffs. They are painted roughly in hot vivid reds, earthy browns, ochres and sunlit vibrant orange. The brush strokes are swirling and undulating which suggest rise and fall of the rugged terrain. Behind the highest peaks is a low horizon of grey sea in the distance.
Above, and taking up the top two thirds of the painting, is a huge dramatic sky. Three cloud shapes edged in white light dominate the picture. They skim across the dark grey blue sky. The one on the left is a swollen blob, a dark nucleus as if full of impending rain. It has rust tones leading a trail with touches of yellow sliding off the page. Further right, a much more muted but similar cloud shape. Beneath this a smaller, reddish brown cloud floats in the distance with its colours flowing into one another. They all lean to the right as if being swept along by the wind.
With thanks to Rebecca Singh for collaborating on the audio description for the vitrines.
Degas Red, Red Coast and Weather-frontAcrylic and watercolour on paper, 35cm x 50cm
I worked on this image directly outdoors, with a thick sheet of rough watercolour paper stretched onto a board and left wettish. I settled myself down in a dip so I could shelter a bit from the wind and perch my board on my lap.
Seen from my low viewpoint , the bottom half of this landscape format painting is completely dominated by rolling red cliffs and hillocks. Hot flame red and scarlet reds. At intervals wooden stakes stick out at angles from the earth along the skyline, all stained rusty red.
Above, the top half of the picture is filled with clouds. Flat along the bottom and crested like waves at the top they seem to move along from left to right as one mass. They are wet and watery, with dark moody grey and pinks indicating fast moving weather and dramatic light.
I had to do this picture quickly. No drawing, just straight in with paint. The overwhelming impression whilst there was the intensity of that kapow! red and a sense of urgency from the weather. The land and sky seemed one, the clouds picking up and mirroring warm pinks and oranges from the earth below.
Iron oxide and Degas Red, The red Earth at GeevorAcrylic, ink, watercolour, iron oxide and mine slime on watercolour paper, 15cm x 117cm when fully extended.
The Red Earth at Geevor on Vimeo.
20 second video of image scrolling left to right.
This panoramic sketchbook is made of four sheets of landscape format paper stuck together to make a long horizontal strip.
It shows the up and down terrain of red cliffs with stakes and chimney remnants sticking up against a sky left white.
For this picture I collected mud and iron oxide pigment from the mine landscape and ground it with pestle and mortar and bound it together with PVA. It produced a chocolate brown red which I have added to the paint and inks. It gave the work a real tactile physicality that you get from working with real materials. However, like those shiny wet stones that you find on the beach but lose their lustre, it dried to a rather disappointingly dull dry matt, and was dusty and gritty to the touch.
QR code Audio descriptions CoMotion Festival
Studio Tour
Studio tour on Vimeo.
A short video of concertina sketchbook COVID tube drawings in Sally Booth’s studio. Displayed informally on a long shelf, and filmed from left to right, Sally walks and talks us through a selection of deserted stations, platforms and tunnels drawn during various periods of lockdown.
Here are a selection of my Covid Tube drawings.
All Change, Empty Platform, Empty Train
Ghost Train, Waterloo
Ghost Train, Waterloo
Tooting Bec at Night
Tooting Broadway
Here are some of my drawings from Chicago.
First Glimpse of Wrigley and Trump Buildings
The View From the Goddess and the Baker at Breakfast Time
Railway and Red Buildings
Oxblood Red Girders a Walk Over the River
Chicago skyline
Under the railtracks light
A selection of my tube drawings
Piccadilly Sketchbook - Westbound at night
Piccadilly Sketchbook - Uxbridge and Rayners Lane
Piccadilly Sketchbook - Down into the abyss
Tube Drawing from digital:works on Vimeo.
District and Circle Line Concertina drawing, ink and acrylic wash on paper
Drawings done live while traveling on the District and Circle. They include a man on his phone, people strap-hanging, someone reading a book, and people rushing to catch their trains at Paddington.
Concertina Sketchbook - District and Circle Line
Bakerloo Sketchbook
District Line - Three Workmen
Headphones on the Night Train 2020
Late Night train, Victoria line 2020
Victoria Line Triptych, 2020
Here are some drawings from Shetland
Open Sketchbook: Sewerage and Salmon Farms, Scalloway
Sliding Panorama - Sewerage and Salmon Farms Scalloway from digital:works on Vimeo.
Open Sketchbook: Shetland in the rain
Sliding Panorama - Shetland in the Rain from digital:works on Vimeo.
My first Ling
Watercolour on paper 2016
The Ling I caught
Brown ink and watercolour on paper 2016
On the boat with Arthur
Pen on paper 2016
Two little pollock
Indian ink and watercolour on paper 2016
Joy the sheep
Pen on paper 2016
Two Rams
Pen on paper 2016
Two more rams
Pen on paper 2016
Scallops and Yellow Trousers
watercolour 2013
Davie filleting plaice
pen, ink and watercolour, 2013
Annie knitting
pen, ink and watercolour, 2013
Ropes on jetty night time
pen, ink and watercolour, 2013
Here are some drawings of Liverpool using acetate
3 layered acetate drawing of the Bluecoat
Liverpool Bus from digital:works on Vimeo.
Brighton panoramas
pen, ink and watercolour on balsa wood, 2011
Beach huts
pen, watercolour and gouache on balsa wood, 2011
Nets and rain
permanent pen and watercolour on canvas, 2010
Stade panorama Rock a Nore
pen on paper, 2010
View from Mick's hut
pen and watercolour on paper, 2010
The Stade Indian ink
Indian ink on paper, 2010
Back of fish market
pen and watercolour on paper, 2010
Sheds and lobster pots, 2010
pen, gouache and watercolour on paper, 2010
Lobster pot panorama
pen on paper, 2010
Inside Mick's hut - a tangle of nets
pen and watercolour on paper, 2010
Nets shops and boats
pen on paper, 2010
The Stade Nets, shops, boats and anchor
pen on paper, 2010
Stade huts and fish and chips
Indian ink, pen and gouache on balsa wood, 2010
Stade sky panorama
Indian ink on varnished balsa wood, 2010
View from East Hill lift
Indian ink on balsa wood, 2010
Cuttlefish traps and lobster pots
Permanent coloured pens on balsa wood, 2010
Mini golf putt putt
coloured pen on balsa wood, 2010
Fisherman's museum, boats and net shops
ink, gouache and acrylic on triangular plywood, 2010
Two views of the Stade
Indian ink and permanent coloured pen on plywood triangles, 2010
Stade from the fish and chip cafe, 2010
Liverpool panoramas
pen on balsa wood, 2009
Japan Sketchbook from digital:works on Vimeo.
Toji-inn Japanese Concertina sketchbook
This 4 metre ink and water colour drawing of a zen garden in Kyoto was drawn from right to left, a little each day. The full drawing is a 360 degree panorama of the garden as you walk around it. Drawn during the Autumn the colours changed from greens and browns to hot oranges reds and yellows.
Ginkakuji in the rain from digital:works on Vimeo.
Ginkakuji in the rain, ink, acrylic and watercolour on Japanese calligraphy sketchbook.
Ginkakuji is a garden in Kyoto which is famous for its silver raked sands, and very popular with Japanese tourists. On the day of my visit, it was pouring with rain. Sheltering under my own red umbrella, I followed the tourists, all concealed under coloured umbrellas, as they promenaded and meandered up and down the hilly paths, and through glades of bamboo.