My name is Olga Cannon-Brookes. I have lived and worked in London for the last 20 years, painting full-time from 2008.
I call myself a "vedute artist" because I primarily specialise in painting detailed architectural views: town scenes, exteriors and interiors of buildings. A veduta (Italian for "view") is a highly detailed painting of a cityscape or some other vista. A classical architectural background plays a significant role in my choice of a subject.
Whilst I love painting the ever-changing scenes of London, I really enjoy portraying houses in rural and urban settings. My particular speciality is painting detailed and highly finished watercolours of period and historic interiors, echoing the work of 19th century artists, such as Luigi Premazzi or Charles Wild. In my paintings I pay a particular attention to capturing the play of light and shade in a space, whilst at the same time delivering a faithful record of the room's interior architecture, furnishings and objects. Examples of these interiors are found in the Interiors Section of this site.
Commissions
Most of my works are private commissions from people who would like to keep an artistic record of their house or a favourite historic building - exteriors, interiors, or both.
Exhibitions
As I paint using traditional multiple layered washes, which are very time-hungry, I can only produce a limited number of non-commissioned paintings which can be exhibited.
Recent exhibitions:
2019 Mall Galleries, London. The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2019
2018 Mall Galleries, London. Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours Open
2017 Mall Galleries, London. Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours Open
2015 Bankside Gallery, London. Royal Watercolour Society Open Exhibition
2015 Mall Galleries, London. Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours Open
2013 Mall Galleries, London. The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition
2011 Mall Galleries, London. The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition
1992-2008 Represented by the Alberti Gallery, London
In 2015 I was featured in the Sky Arts programme "Landscape Aritst of the Year", painting plein air view of historic Waddeston Manor in Buckinghamshire with a group of other artists.
This site shows a selection of my work.