Foundation Year Project, 2007

In 2007 I made three paintings for the final major project (FMP) at Abingdon & Witney college. The paintings were inspired by London. I felt the atmosphere on the underground had changed following the 2005 terrorist attacks. An environment that was already pretty dingey had become darker. I had this image in my head of this train hurtling towards me. You could see the front of the train, and a diminishing platform. The lights of the train were bright but it was enshrouded by darkness. To 'exorcise' this vision, I made 100 paintings. Some quite small and some minimal, all externalising the motif. In order to evoke the properties of a tube tunnel, I used organic substances - sticky honey and dusty charcoal. This meant that once the paintings went into storage, they went mouldy! However, the mould is quite beautiful, and quite fitting, reminiscent of rust and damp.

Some of the preparatory paintings/drawings:

The final paintings:

Here are some close up shots of the surface taken in bright sunlight.