Los Angeles wall art UK for rooms with character

Welcome to my blog, I am a professional cartoonist, illustrator, artist and writer. My site here is intended to promote a range of works that I think will look good on the wall. Included on my site is not just my own work, but some works by other artists whose work I love and hope to bring to a wider audience. I hope you enjoy your tour of my site and welcome any feedback. Prints are fulfilled by The Print Space for prints on paper, they are one of the UK's premier fine art print companies, and there is also the option of buying some images printed onto canvas, these are fulfilled by Printumo. All prints are available worldwide.

Los Angeles wall art UK buyers can make their own

Los Angeles wall art in the UK need not mean a predictable palm tree, a film poster or a glossy shot of the Hollywood sign. The city is at its most interesting when it is slightly worn, oversized and oddly put together: sun-bleached lettering, massive advertising boards, low industrial buildings and streets that appear to have collected their own history.

That is what makes a good Los Angeles image worth living with. It is not merely a souvenir of a famous place. It is a composition with shape, colour, texture and enough visual tension to keep rewarding a second look from the other side of the room.

The photographs here feature some particularly striking large advertising signs found around the Los Angeles area. Their scale is part of their charm. A sign designed to command attention from passing traffic can become a brilliant focal point on a wall, whether chosen as a fine art paper print or as a canvas print with a more immediate, substantial presence.

The appeal is in the edges, not the postcard view

Los Angeles is often photographed as a polished dream of blue sky, swimming pools and immaculate modernism. There is certainly nothing wrong with that, but the visual character of the city often lives elsewhere. Old shopfronts, painted walls, weathered metal, blank facades and enormous signs tell a more convincing story.

Advertising signs are especially good subjects because they are both graphic and accidental. The lettering has been carefully designed, but time, traffic, sunlight and the surroundings have added their own marks. The result can be bold without being loud. A large sign against a pale sky has the clean impact of a piece of modern graphic design, while still carrying the grit and personality of a real street.

For a living room, hallway or workspace, this sort of image works well when you want the wall to have a point of view. It can sit comfortably with contemporary furniture, mid-century pieces or a more collected interior. The trick is not to make the whole room into a theme. One strong image is generally more persuasive than a wall full of clichés.

Paper print or canvas?

It depends on the room and the effect you want. A fine art paper print has crisp detail and a slightly quieter, more considered feel. It is a good choice for close-looking photography, especially where lettering, faded paint or small architectural details deserve attention. Framed simply, it can look sharp without feeling overdone.

Canvas brings a different sort of presence. It suits images with broad sky, large areas of colour and strong blocks of signwriting. A canvas print can hold its own above a sofa or on a bigger, plainer wall where a framed print might feel too slight. Neither is automatically better. A small, busy room may benefit from the refinement of paper, while a large open wall can take the confident scale of canvas.

From Gloucestershire to Los Angeles

There may seem to be a fair distance between Los Angeles street scenes and the Gloucestershire countryside, but they are connected by the same way of looking. I have always been drawn to the visual qualities of old industrial buildings, sheds, corrugated iron and industrial metalwork. These are not glamorous subjects in the usual sense, but they have marvellous surfaces, shapes and shadows.

A battered shed can have a better arrangement of lines than a newly built house. Corrugated iron changes with the weather, moving from dull grey to blue, silver or a near-black tone. Old doors, patched roofs and rusting panels reveal decisions made over years, often without anyone thinking of them as design. That practical, improvised quality is endlessly interesting.

Much of my work is inspired by the Gloucestershire countryside and by old industrial sites around the River Severn. I photograph a great deal of the subject matter when I can, then paint it when the weather gets bad. The landscapes, sheds and working buildings around the river have their own quiet drama: low horizons, changing skies, worn timber and metalwork that seems to belong to the ground.

The Los Angeles photographs come from a different climate and scale, but the attraction is familiar. A huge sign has the same appeal as a corrugated roof when it catches the light well. Both are made objects. Both are shaped by use and weather. Both can become surprisingly beautiful when seen without the usual assumptions about what is worthy of a picture.

Work with texture has a place in modern interiors

There is a good reason photographs of industrial details and rural structures sit so easily in homes. They bring texture without asking you to redecorate around them. A charcoal drawing of a building, a colour print of a shed, or a Los Angeles sign photograph can add material interest to a room full of smooth surfaces.

This is particularly useful in newer homes, where walls and finishes can sometimes feel a little too tidy. Art with weathered paint, dark timber, chalky charcoal marks or ageing metal introduces a sense of life. It gives the eye something irregular to enjoy.

That does not mean every room needs a rustic look. These images can be wonderfully effective in a clean, minimal setting because the contrast makes their details clearer. Equally, in a more traditional house they can feel entirely at home among books, old furniture and objects gathered over time.

Scale matters more than most people think. A small work can be perfect above a desk or beside a bookshelf, where it becomes a private pleasure. For a main wall, do not be frightened of choosing an image with enough size to register. The large advertising signs in the Los Angeles photographs were made to be seen from a distance, so they retain their strength when printed generously.

New work worth a look

New charcoal drawing images have recently been added, along with new photographs. Charcoal has a directness that suits old buildings and landscapes particularly well. It can hold deep blacks, soft greys and the roughness of a surface without becoming fussy. The marks themselves carry some of the atmosphere, which makes these drawings feel both observed and made.

There are also new, exciting works by Steve Parker. I only include guest artists whose work I genuinely admire, and Steve's pieces bring their own energy and visual intelligence to the selection. That variety matters. A good wall should not look as though it has been assembled from one anonymous catalogue.

None of the works are limited editions. The point is to make strong, well-produced images available to people who want to live with them, rather than turn them into a test of who got there first. Choose the picture that keeps catching your eye, give it enough room, and let it do its job: look good on the wall.