us Queues are awful, aren't they? They’re a necessary evil, if you have no car.
With the growth in car ownership, buses are becoming less frequent, well they are in rural areas, but in cities they still have an essential place. They are a cheap way of getting around, especially if you hate to drive in heavy traffic.

The downside of bus travel has always been the Bus Queue.
Waiting in all weathers can be wearing, especially when there is no shelter or the queue is long and the buses packed. Seeing a line of buses makes me smile…
Even buses have to queue sometime. So when I saw nose to tail buses on a London Street, I had to snap the bus queue and turn it into a painting.

Look at the painting, the first thing you notice is the bus. You can’t really ignore that big red box with windows now can you? The second bus is less obvious but still easy to find. There was another behind that one as well but it’s lost below the page. The bright reds and deep carmines are toned down by the dark green, almost black, windows and the tree, to the right, frames the painting with an edge of dark green/black lace. Details of windows in a building behind can be glimpsed through the foliage.

Above the buses is the familiar skyline. London with the Gherkin placed like a pawn, No, like a Bishop in some enormous chess game. It Lurks behind the office blocks, ready to make a strategic move. Around them tower cranes twist and turn in an elegant ballet. They may be far apart but, from here, they seem to encircle the Gherkin as they perform.

Other buildings show elaborate details that hint at their identity but are not fully revealed. Stopped, waiting, caught in time, waiting for the traffic ahead to clear. No waiting in the rain for this bus. Despite all the background interest, this is a London bus painting and the bus steals the show front, off-centre and always ready to perform. The London bus is undoubtably overdone, and yet there is room for one more variation.

All copyrights are retained by the artist, and the artwork cannot be reproduced without consent from Cathy S R Read.
This picture was initially drawn onto watercolour paper. These lines were then drawn over using masking fluid and then painted using watercolour paint and acrylic ink. Salt was also used in the process and some of the ink blown around using a straw. Once the painting was dry the masking fluid was removed to reveal the finished painting. The original is 56cm high x 76cm wide and was created in England in 2015.