Liam O’Farrell, Artist
Brick Lane at the corner of Bacon St
Liam O’Farrell delights in painting East End markets in all their shambolic minutiae, often returning to the same subject many times to explore the mutable nature of their architecture and communities.
“I moved to London in 1988 from Portsmouth and at first I spent all my time around the West End, in Leicester Sq and Ed’s Diner in Soho, but after six months it stopped giving anything to me,” he admitted, “My sister worked in the rag trade in the East End and she took me to an old pub and showed me around the streets here, and eventually I moved to Hackney and it felt just like home.”
Living here for more than twenty years brought Liam an intimate knowledge of the streets and kindled his desire to devote himself to drawing and painting fulltime. Yet this realisation also led to his departure. “I realised that if I wanted to do more paintings of London, I needed to not live here anymore, so I reduced my overheads by moving to Somerset in 2011,” he explained. “Now I come back to the East End every couple of weeks and I like to draw in short bursts – especially with the cold and the bloody rain – I make drawings for reference and work them up into paintings in my studio.”
In Liam’s pictures, people and architecture are inextricable and, in spite of their apparent realism, these are images constructed from memory – a synthesis of Liam’s perception of a place and its inhabitants, rather than any literal representation. In his affectionate vision, Liam celebrates the intricate details of the markets and the people that make this place distinctive.
Bacon St
Sclater St Market
Corner of Brick Lane ands Bethnal Green Rd
Columbia Rd
Great Eastern St
Whitechapel Rd
Round Chapel, Hackney
St Andrew Undershaft, St Mary Axe
The Cockpit, City of London
Royal Courts of Justice
St Paul’s Choir School, City of London
St Paul’s Cathedral
Liam O’Farrell at work in Fournier St
Images copyright © Liam O’Farrell
Wonderful painting I absolutely love them 🙂
Liam’s drawings and paintings are wonderful, hope we get to see more another time! Valerie
Dear Gentle Author,
spitalfieldslife.com is such a delight.
Please give Mister Pussy a hug from Hamburg.
Thank you for sharing Liam’s work….I love these characters you introduce us to on your blog.
Looking forward to going to Fournier Street too.
Happy Easter to you from a very grateful reader of your blog!
I like his special kind of architectual art — and his choice to move out to the country! (I would like to do that too. Somerset is not too bad!)
Love & Peace & Happy Easter
ACHIM
These are simply wonderful!!! The buildings themselves are alive.
Lovely drawings and paintings, thank you! He’s not a cartoonist, he’s a great artist!
Absolutely delightful!
Absolutely enchanting, thank you for sharing and enriching my life yet again!
Fantastic work! I’d like to see more!!
Lovely work!
Although I never knew the East End, my grandparents lived there for 40 years. You have brought it to life again.
Good to meet you ‘The Gentle Author” and thanks all for the positive comments. Note: I polished my boots especially for my photo!
Delightful! Lovely! A joy to behold! Thank you!