(Above) This 89 x 49 inch oil-on-linen drawing of the Chicago River by British artist Nathan Walsh is a view of the Chicago River from the Wrigley Building, specifically the first landing down from Michigan Avenue at upper left. A Wendella tour boat is docked. Trump International Hotel & Tower is at right. Across the river is Wacker Drive. The drawing is titled Chicago 7AM.

May 19, 2013 – An elaborate drawing of the Chicago River by a British artist will be part of an exhibition at an art gallery in New York this year. Nathan Walsh captured three Chicago scenes in pencil and in person before completing the full-color versions in London last year.

The drawings will be displayed in November at Bernarducci Meisel Gallery on West 57th Street in New York. The 6,000 square foot gallery specializes in contemporary realist art by established and emerging artists.

(Above) “Chicago 7AM” as an early pencil drawing. (Below) Walsh at work on another drawing, Chicago in the rain. (Click on images to view larger versions.)

“I am fascinated by the city, its visual complexity and constant state of flux,” says Walsh on his web site. He says his goal is to “present a painted world which in some ways resembles the world we live in.”

Each work can take three to four months to complete and require hundreds of pencil sketches drawn on-site.

(Above) The 200 block of South Wabash Avenue on a rainy day is seen in this Walsh drawing, Central Camera.

 Web site: Nathan Walsh