These are paintings on Tin. Using discarded oil tins, they are flattened out and mounted them on wooden stretchers. The surface lends itself to being left raw painted on, scraped back, burnt and then repainted; often the process taking months to complete. This process has allowed me to experiment with the very old process of oil painting; in a new way. When the picture is finally complete the surface is permanently sealed halting any decay and preserving the surface indefinatly.

I have been working in this way for some years. The work has been exhibited and sold in various galleries in London and the UK.

The paintings are in the main the result of many journeys by the River Thames; to some of its more remote and inhospitable places. Places written about by Dickens, inspiration for Conrad who lived there. The last in the series are paintings of the Sea Forts in the Thames Estuary (www.project-redsands.com) the last point of departure before the open sea.

I am now employing this technique to develop the series of pictures recording the regeneration of the Elephant and Castle

Hotel Elephant

PRIVATE VIEW Thursday 10th July

6pm-9pm (press 4pm)

New Art Gallery in the Elephant and Castle!

Reuben Powell is exhibiting drawings and paintings documenting Elephant and Castle in his studio gallery in the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre. The Gallery is featured in this years London Festival of Architecture. These pictures on a very large scale executed in graphite and oil on paper.www.lfa2008.org

Hotel Elephant
unit 238/upper level/Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre
London SE1 6TE
Tel: 020 7450 1826

Gallery Opening Times:
Monday to Friday 11am - 6pm

telephone:07710 629317

Click here for flyer

The Elephant and Castle regeneration is one of the largest regeneration projects in Europe. It will profoundly change this area.

As an artist and long-standing resident, it is my intention to record this transformation in a series of large-scale pictures and prints.

Living in the area for over twenty years has given me a detailed understanding aswell as an affection for this much maligned part of London.

This work will provide an invaluable document of its time. It will exist as a snap-shot of a major change to London life seen from the perspective of the community affected.