Bruges at Night

**Bruges at Night** - limited edition prints available

Watercolour on arches paper, 36cm x 26cm

12th January 2021. This is my first night time painting! Well, not that I painted it at night. But that my photograph was taken at night. A few years ago, I visited Bruges for the first time with some colleagues and a group of students and I was lucky enough to visit again this year in February en route to Denmark. Initially, we were going to fly to Denmark for a long weekend break to visit family. But in mid February 2020, the first reports of the pandemic started to emerge and we decided not to fly. Instead we drove, quite an undertaking. But my husband loves to drive and we were able to add a couple of extra nights on to the trip to allow for the drive. There were no government guidelines or restrictions at this time, but we armed ourselves with antibacterial gel (shelves were well stocked) and wipes and set off. Travelling and stopping on the motorway, onlookers must have thought we were a little strange as we vigilantly sanitised our cutlery and were constantly using hand gel…. little did we know that this would become a way of life! When we came back to the UK, we were unable to buy antibacterial gel and about 3 weeks later restrictions were put in place. Looking back now, I am so glad we had this lovely little break, who knows when we will be able to drive across France, Belgium, Holland, Germany and into Denmark again! So this painting is, therefore, quite a meaningful memento of our last trip abroad. Our first stop after crossing the channel was Bruges. It was lovely to be able to take more time to explore this beautiful little town with my husband. The walk along the canal banks were as I remembered and as enchanting as ever; the night sky turns the canal water into black inky pools and the fairy lights and reflections so magical. This scene in particular was one of my favourites from our night time walk.

I am always interested to see the stages of how artists produce their work and build up a painting. So I have included the stages for this one below.

The stages of ‘Bruges at Night’…..