Another cityscape from Tim Garner’s iconic Northern Quarter series, 'Northern Quarter Rooves' presents to us the promise of an optimistic sky looming over a city centre street. Glistening grey roofs suggest a recent drizzle, as the sun attempts to peer through the hazy clouds. In Garner's signature style, we are offered a new perspective, floating above the cityscape, whilst also looking across and upward over Manchester, where skyscrapers meet Victorian mills.
- Media: mixed media on board framed
- Dimensions: 60 x 90cm
- Price: £2800.00
Another cityscape from Tim Garner’s iconic Northern Quarter series, 'Northern Quarter Rooves' presents to us the promise of an optimistic sky looming over a city centre street. This area of the city maintains and embraces both the old and new Manchester – it is a fusion of the past and present, with its trendy new bars and eateries located within the historical architecture. Glistening grey roofs suggest a recent drizzle, as the optimistic sun attempts to peer through hazy, gritty clouds. In Garner's signature style, we are offered a new perspective, floating above the cityscape and looking across and upward over Manchester, where skyscrapers meet Victorian mills. Garner captures these high vantage points from car parks and rooftops around the city, offering us a bird's eye view that we don't often get to see. Those familiar with Manchester will be aware of the city's contrasts, and how quickly it can change – Garner’s paintings bring this to a standstill, showing the city at a specific moment in time. Since this piece was painted, this street will inevitably already have changed and transformed. “I like the factual nature of photography, the immediacy, but it’s not enough. Paint is more emotional.” For Garner, painting is an extension of what's around us, in a way that's both physical and metaphysical. Garner is interested in exploring different visual languages, in a way that is not formulaic, but that reflects everyday life. Industrial materials such as metals and cement are often used by Garner to appropriate the dirt and grit of the Northern city streets, combined with a toolkit of metallics and iridescent paints to create texture, light and depth. Garner's works are made using a rigorous process of applying layer upon layer of thin mixed ground onto the surface, taking any time from 10 days to 3 weeks to build up. In 'Northern Quarter Rooves', Garner has captured a still moment in time - a snapshot of a mundane, anti-landmark, expanded to a work of fine art. This is a prominent theme throughout Garner’s oeuvre, establishing a certain honesty within his works. Garner's works are full of contradictions that make them challenging yet exciting - isn't that what art is all about?
Based in his home studio in Stockport, Tim Garner is an artist who captures cityscapes through his own avant-garde lens. Inspired from his time living between Manchester and Paris, Garner works from photography and photo collage as his primary references, taking advantage of their visual immediacy and accuracy. Paint and cement are then used as a way of injecting emotive layers of meaning, forming Garner's distinctive style and flair. Through this process Garner has established his own visual language, which is imbued with character. His works are comfortingly familiar to a Northern audience, whilst enlightening and educating wider audiences. A piece of Mancunian history, this artwork would be a valuable asset for any contemporary art space, collection or home.