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Looking Back to Richmond House 2011
Acrylic on canvas
72 x 108 in / 183 x 274 cm
Ben Johnson's cityscape of the London skyline, a view of Trafalgar Square from the roof of the National Gallery. Johnson completed the painting live at the National Gallery during the course of his Modern Perspectives exhibition.
The Liverpool Cityscape, 2008
Acrylic on canvas
96 x 192in / 244 x 488cm
PAINTING STATISTICS
Full time work on project commenced 5th April 2005
Painting completed 30 March 2008
Duration: 3 years for the team. (Would have been 18 years for 1 person)
Buildings depicted: several hundred thousand
Workforce for 3 years Ben Johnson + 3 draftsmen, 1 colour separator for stencils , 1 colour mixer/studio assistant. Over a 3-year period 43 people assisted on painting in the studio, many of them volunteers.
Overall view covers 5 square miles.
Viewpoint is 220 metres above sea level and 500 metres out into The Mersey looking towards the Three Graces. On the extreme right is the Anglican Cathedral and bottom left is St. Nicholas Church.
Over 3000 reference photographs taken
An average of 25 stencils used per building or group of buildings
Port of Liverpool used 380 stencils (the most complex building)
Anglican Cathedral and Liver Building each used 300 separate stencils
A total of 22,950 stencils used (excluding those for landscape, water and foliage)
700 individual colours mixed. Blended, these create thousands more.
The painting was completed in public during a 6-week residency at the Walker Art Gallery (28 January to 7 March 2008).
Visitors to Walker: over 250,000
“Cityscapes in art: dystopian perspectives and unexpected beauty” by Jonathan Hajdamach for artuk.org
Jerusalem, The Eternal City 1999 / 2000
Acrylic on canvas
90x180in / 202.9 x 405.7cm
Zurich 2003
Acrylic on canvas
79x158in / 200x400cm
Hong Kong Panorama 1997
Acrylic on canvas
6x12ft / 1.83x3.66m
Statistics on making a panoramic painting to mark the historic return to China of Hong Kong and the New Territories:
The painting was made with a team of assistants over a three year period, reconstructing and representing every building visible from the highest point of
Hong Kong.
The panoramic view is a 6 ft x 12 ft (1.83 x 3.66m) acrylic on canvas painting.
It represents a 180 degree view from The Peak - the highest point of Hong Kong - and records the city with Kowloon and the distant hills of the New Territories as seen on
1 July 1997.
The method of painting was mainly sprayed - therefore all areas had to be covered with masking tape.
Initial research, photographs and studies in Hong Kong: 80 hours
Work in London studio:
Preparatory drawing 2500 hours
Colour mixing of more than 500 colours - 240 hours
Transfer of drawing onto canvas prior to spraying and painting 120 hours
Painting hours - total over 8000 hours
Total hours spent making the painting - 10860 hours or 271 weeks equal to six working years
People directly involved in making the painting - six
Number of buildings represented - over 3000
Number of windows represented - over 5000
Thinnest line sprayed less than 1000th of an inch/0.2mm
Average width of masking tape 1/8 inch or 3mm
Amount of masking tape used approximately 24 miles/40 kilometres
Number of scalpel blades used for cutting tape 5000
