A Liverpool panorama unveiled for 2008

Nov 2 2007 by Phil Key, Liverpool Daily Post

IT IS the painting every Liverpudlian and lover of Liverpool will want to see, a massive view of the city on a canvas 16ft wide and 8ft tall.

With much of the work complete, artist Ben Johnson opened his studio in the Hammersmith area of London for a first public view of the painting.

It is a breathtaking piece with every building over five square miles recreated in meticulous detail together with a horizon stretching to the hills beyond.

The painting even captured the praise of studio visitor Anne Robinson of The Weakest Link. “It is quite magical,” beamed the Liverpool-born presenter in a change from her television image, hardly able to take her eyes from the canvas.

The work – titled The Liverpool Cityscape – is a £500,000 commission from National Museums Liverpool with financial help from a number of sponsors.

Among those was Brookside creator Phil Redmond and deputy chairman of the Culture Company who personally donated what he describes as “a substantial amount”.

He was delighted with the work, which he said would be one of the legacies of Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture. “It is a very special piece,” he said.

“It also reveals Liverpool’s global position with so many buildings like the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine involved with events outside of the city.”

For Llandudno-born artist Ben Johnson, the painting has taken three years of his life.

“I have done nothing else except this painting.

“I have also had six assistants with me so you could say this painting has taken 18 years to complete.”

He had already painted similar but smaller panoramic paintings of Jerusalem, Zurich and Hong Kong. The Liverpool cityscape is his largest commission yet, and he accepted it only on the condition that it would be given to the people of Liverpool.

After going on display in the Walker Art Gallery next year, it will finally be on permanent exhibition in the new Museum of Liverpool.

Johnson, a dapper 61-year-old, has had his Hammersmith studio for the last ten years. He converted it from a derelict building and fellow artist Sir Peter Blake – another visitor – created his own studio at the same time next door.

The studio itself is amazingly neat and tidy: “I like to be organised,” he says.

Although he knew Liverpool from childhood days in North Wales and later studying in Chester, he did visit Liverpool again with his wife and assistant, Sheila, before accepting the commission.

“I wanted to know if we really wanted to spend three years of our lives working on this city,” he explains. The answer was a resounding yes.

To create his special panoramic view, he took photographs of every building, a process which continues. Drawings were then made and stencils created to spray the acrylic paint on to the canvas. It is very time-consuming work.

The completed painting will be on display at the Walker from May 24 to November 2.

philkey