Constructed City 14: Wrapped

All Images: West Leicester, June 2020

A relatively short Corona-lull not withstanding, the significant wave of major construction work now continues apace, at various sites around Leicester.  The first two buildings to attract my lens, some months back, long since completed, and stand adjacent on the inner ring road.  Another large edifice, nearby on the river bank, is well advanced, and will soon interest me less as a work in progress - representing instead, another section of both map and skyline to have been successfully filled in.

But, this is by no means the end of the story.  Yet another, even more massive complex of blocks is now at the stage of peak visual complexity, just a few metres away - and is providing an ever expanding harvest of source images on an almost daily basis.  More photographic excursions, to sites to the north and south of the city centre respectively, provide further material still.  In the last couple of weeks, two more brand new edifices have raised themselves, again close to the river - being currently at the delicious steel skeleton stage.

It's almost too much to keep up with, and I feel a certain pressure to visit and revisit as often as possible, for fear of missing a particular detail of the construction process as each building expands.  So, whilst I hesitate to celebrate a global catastrophe that has already claimed too many lives - and which will doubtless disrupt many more, I can't pretend the greater degree of time-flexibility the pandemic has afforded, hasn't been very useful.  Also advantageous, is the fact that many of the construction sites are a mere stone's-throw from home - and were always easily within the scope of a statutory exercise session, or that they lie on my regular cycle route to work - now that going to work is becoming more of a thing once more.  Finally, the generally favourable weather conditions, and long summer evenings afford yet more incentive to jump on the bike for a quick spin 'round the sites' whenever the mood takes me.  The strongly-illuminated colours and strong cast shadows, created by the abundant sunlight, don't hurt the resulting images, either.

Anyway, this seems an ideal time to put up a few more of those images - at least while my next 'Constructed City' painting is still a little way off completion.  Following my observations about the habitual wrapping of many of these half-completed buildings, in my last 'CC' -related post, I'll include a few more examples of that phenomenon here, along with one or two closely-related meditations on the theme of veiling and translucency.

Enjoy, (I know I do).