Brighton Art Portfolio by Danny Ingram

Brighton Pavilion and the i360 are drawn together beneath an eclipse of turning wheels and golden light. A bold, surreal reflection on movement, connection and time.

They don't dream about much else do they? This is one of my earlier paintings, the Fox serenely asleep tucked out of sight, sleeping away the day hours until it can carry on its nightly antics of eating kebabs and...

This is the original painting by artist Danny Ingram

Acrylic & fine liner on canvas. 35x28cm. Satin lacquer finish.

I've developed quite a thing for painting dragons eyes and quite like getting as much play with the shine of the eyeball. So this one I thought it would be fun to put the reflection of what the dragon is seeing, way up in the air flying around, he's watching the carnage created as his dragon comrades burn down the town.

Acrylic & Oil Pastel on canvas 50x40cm. Satin Lacquer finish.

The original artwork by Brighton Artist Danny Ingram

I love being out on the arm of the marina it feels like you step out of the city and the country for just that tiny few minutes. Looking back though at the sunsets they're blinding, really really blinding. Over the hills sun cascades down and hits the sea and you catch every little motion of the waves. I tried to capture all those beautiful warm colours that come from such a low setting sun.

Acrylic and textured gel on canvas. 90x65cm. High gloss lacquer finish.

The original painting by Brighton Artist Danny Ingram

The painting is called Plenty More Fish in the Sea. At the time, I liked the double meaning. Penguins fish, obviously, but it’s also that slightly hopeless thing people tell you when your heart gets broken: there are plenty more fish in the sea.

And looking at them now, I like that you can’t quite tell what kind of embrace it is. Are they simply holding each other because they’re in love? Or is one of them holding the other because something hurts?

Perhaps it’s both.

Acrylic on Canvas. Satin Laquer Finish. 40x50cm

This is the original painting by Artist Danny Ingram

One of my earlier paintings. I wanted to capture the movement of the owl when it leaps, just as it's spotted the small mouse far far away. I also wanted to get that texture in it's feathers. They're known for being smooth and silent but there's a lot of fluff, texture and kick out of direction within the tail and wing. I love the greenness of his eyes they really capture that intense stare of an owl that seems something far far away. Its a Moorsporks Owl for the bird lovers out there.

This is the original painting by artist Danny Ingram

Acrylic on canvas. Satin lacquer finish. 91x62cm

Duke of York's cinema in Brighton. I wanted it to feel like a projector in itself with light bursting and spilling out from it. I also used a colour palette that suited that old cine reel kind of sepia colourings. I love the way the light spills out all over the pavement. It really does have a feel of that time of night after the last show. Which has become the title of this painting.

After The Last Show

Acrylic on canvas 65x91 cm

Satin and high gloss finish

The swirling hair the Golden locks and the loud printed dress Drag-ulous encapsulates the loud, bold and downright fabulousness of Drag Queens and their sass.

what an absolute feast of colour this one became. I love colour — in case that hadn't already become painfully obvious — and this painting gave me permission to use rather a lot of it.

The original photograph was taken looking down from Brighton Palace Pier onto the beach at low tide. It's a view I've always loved: tiny figures scattered across that enormous expanse of wet sand, while the last of the sunlight hits the sea and seems to bounce straight back at you.

I played with the original image quite a bit to make it work for me, and painting it on a square canvas changed the composition more than I'd expected.

With my wider canvases, I naturally tend to make the eye travel across the painting. Here, everything could happen at once — the enormous sky, that blazing sun, the sweep of the water and those tiny people disappearing into the distance.

Then there was the colour.

Somewhere along the way, the foreground almost accidentally developed the colours of a Pride flag — reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues and violets all running through the wet sand.

But then, this is Brighton.

Colour rather suits us.

The long shadows came quite late. I might have been slightly more restrained with them if I did it again, but I love what they ultimately gave the painting: suddenly you can feel exactly how low that sun is. Every figure points you back towards that fierce little source of light on the horizon.

A few tiny touches of impasto brought the glare back out, some oil pastel helped those colours bleed and shimmer across the beach...

And then I made myself stop

Acrylic & oil pastel on deep-edge canvas
74 × 74 cm
High-gloss lacquer finish

A familiar promenade bench becomes the starting point for a walk through colour and light. Blue supports anchor the foreground as golden reflections lead along the seafront towards distant figures and the i360. Beneath the vivid red-orange sky, Brighton’s Palace Pier stretches across the other side of the scene.

A coral and orange sunset fills the sky above Brighton’s West Pier. Cool blue clouds and sea meet the warmth reflected across the shore, while people and dogs pause at the water’s edge. The dark structure of the pier gives the glowing evening a familiar Brighton silhouette.