Morning Jubilee, Ripon (In the Footsteps of Turner)

‘Morning Jubilee, Ripon’ Oil on canvas 91cm x 76cm

On a summer’s morning in 1797 the 22yr old JMW Turner set up his easel outside what is now David Stead Gallery and made a drawing of Kirkgate and the cathedral. This was a really exciting discovery for me and it inspired the idea of following him on his journey round the North making pictures of some of the places he painted. Kirkgate presents all kinds of problems for the artist because of its curvature, narrowness and vertical linearity. Turner solved the problems by drawing the street from two different points and I have used the same device in this picture.