Original Paintings & Prints by Elaine Cooper.

Inspiration for some of her latest paintings comes from sketching the vibrantly coloured old houses & shops of Europe, standing for hundreds of years yet able to adapt to a modern café culture & the 21st century appetite for shopping. Buildings once derelict have been given a new lease of life now buzzing with modern society combining young and old alike able to sell us a dream whilst offering a brief glimpse into the lives of those who live work and play there.

This new collection features the traditional, sometimes more modern architecture she's sketched & painted whilst in Northern Italy, the Coastal Towns of Southern France & England's West Country. In final pieces a familiar yet developing style interprets the character of buildings, exaggerating perspective whilst giving texture to crusty exteriors & finding long, narrow alleyways for your imagination to explore.

In some more recent work attention has been turned to the bustling melee of our cities where young and old can be observed living together in harmony, climbing up instead of out loving their vibrant surroundings which huddle together in a cluttered landscape. People together with the buildings they live or work in forming communities, finding green space above instead of below. Gardens worn like hats by these fabulous buildings which once would be seen as slums, but now are viewed as the height of chic.