Sophia B

Manchester based fine artist, Sophia B's work is both contemporary and sophisticated. Sophia specialises in acrylic and oil paintings on canvas of cityscapes and buildings.

Based in the heart of Manchester city centre, Sophia draws her inspiration from the eclectic mix of architecture, people, and culture that radiates from Manchester. Sophia is experiencing a passionate love affair with Manchester, this has led to contemporary cityscape images of Manchester being the focus of her work.

Sophia was the best in her county at GCSE level art and went on to focus academically on a batchelor of arts in business and furthered her art during her leisure time. An interesting career path in advertising, marketing and TV ultimately enabled Sophia to focus full-time on her artwork from the beginning of 2008.

An exquisite collection of purple, gold and black original Manchester cityscapes which are also available as limited edition prints in two sizes.

Sophia's originals start from £900 for a 60 x 80 cm painting and the limited edition prints start from £150 for a framed giclee canvas print at 19cm x 39 cm.

Background

Born in Yorkshire, Sophia has always enjoyed the expressive form of painting and drawing as a way of communicating the beauty of what surrounds her.

Sophia moved around the country during her childhood, finally settling in Manchester which became the inspiration for her beautiful collection of gold cityscapes.

Sophia is always one to visit art galleries wherever in the world she is, and whatever the style, enjoying the pleasure of experiencing something new.

Early influences included Sophia's respect and adoration of the impressionists, Monet, Renoir, Pisarro and the significance of the form created by the likes of Cezanne and Picasso. Also enjoying the works created by fellow Yorkshire men: the Bradford Mafia artist's David Oxtoby; Norman Stevens and David Hockney.

Launching her career as a freelance artist Sophia worked on undertaking commercial commissions. Whilst also creating collections of work inspired by lyrics, musical instruments and still working on her cityscape collection.

Inspiration

"I get inspiration all the time and am constantly taking photographs and sketching ideas.  I might use an idea straight away or develop it when the desire takes me.

I am regularly inspired by my city centre morning view and the moving canvas of a window on the train from the ribble valley back to the city centre. Songs, lyrics, and people inspire me, as do visiting galleries and looking at the form and compositions used by different artists.

I love the effects of  light and luminosity, and am captivated by how different the atmosphere of a place is from day to night. This is something that I have attempted to utilise by using hues of gold in my city scape pieces.

Colours inspire me, I enjoy the way that colour affects how we feel, how we relate to our surroundings and the emotions they evoke. I love using gold and purple to convey affluence, prosperity and regality. "

To canvas

"For the cityscapes I start off with a series of photos and select my favourites of the individual buildings. I then put all of the buildings together in photoshop and play around with the position so that I can use that form for the final composition. When I am 100% happy with the composition I begin a sketch of the buildings onto the canvas which I then paint over building by building until the scene is formed.

I use a mixture of brush strokes, sponge and blending techniques. preferring to work in bursts of 45 minutes to an hour whilst constantly referring back to the photo of the building.

For my other works, I sketch out the ideas first and then work out what size would work best and play with the paint until it works for me."