Prized Bath

John Hudson talks to architect turned artist Glyn Davies about his award-winning year

S elf-employed architect Glyn Davies toyed with the idea of choosing fine art as his speciality at art college, but instead plumped for the course that qualified him in his profession.

Not many hard-headed boys from Durham would have done anything else; architects earn their keep in life, while artists starve in garrets.

And so it's come to pass; he's been working steadily in architecture in and around Bath since he qualified in 1972.

But he never let go of painting as a hobby, a weekend retreat – and it became increasingly important to him when computers took away the need for him to "put marks on paper" in his working life.

He missed that, and proceeded to build up a score or more paintings he felt were worth preserving, mainly in watercolour but also a few oils to keep him going over a period of time.

Earlier this year, he made the decision to start exhibiting for the first time – and now he has completed a remarkable winning double. In summer, a study of the Empire Hotel building won the watercolour prize at the Bath Society of Artists' open exhibition at the Victoria Art Gallery.

And this month he has followed that up to take the £2,500 Bath Prize in an exhibition to be seen at the Octagon in Milsom Street until next Saturday.

His winning painting, in oils, is titled Hedgewick Park, but in fact it's a panorama taken from a high-powered telephoto image looking westward from up on North Road.

It's a scene that takes in, from top to bottom, Lansdown Road, the Paragon, St Swithin's Church, Walcot Burial Chapel, London Street and Bathwick Street, and it was clearly the drama of this foreshortened image that impressed the judges.

"I think Bath, a city in a bowl, lends itself well to telephoto shots, and I enjoy the challenge of working from that kind of image," says Glyn, who lives with his wife Yve in Upper Swainswick.

"After taking the photo I returned to the scene several times, to check on architectural detail and also to see how the colours could be best adjusted for the final work.

"I wanted to make the most of the complementary opposites of the colours of the slate roofs and stone w alls, and of the red clay tiles and green of the grass." Glyn was one of 94 amateur and professional artists who entered the competition, which was organised by the Bath Gallery in Bridge Street to celebrate the World Heritage City.

There are 154 paintings currently on show at the Octagon, ranging in price from £60 to £4,500. Glyn's winning entry carries a £2,800 price tag.

Ben Hughes took the £1,000 Future Bath Plus prize for the best scene completed outdoors, on site; to make sure the whole city was covered, entrants had to produce at least one painting inspired by a specified location, and his heart must have sunk when the Southgate redevelopment came out of the hat for him. But Ben's response was to face up to what was going on there, warts and all, and the judges warmed to his view up Southgate from outside the new bus station, portrayed in all its colourful chaos.

Whether or not the city of Bath is dear to your heart, this exhibition of 150-plus paintings presents a mass of excitingly contrasting images in the unique surroundings of the Octagon in Milsom Street.

It is open from 10am-5pm from today until next Saturday, except for tomorrow, when it closes at 4pm.

Meanwhile, spurred by his double success, Glyn Davies is about to open a website on which prints of his various works are for sale – www.glyndavies.co.uk