Covered Forecourt with People, London Bridge Station

Having painted from rooves for several years, and having twice exhibited paintings made ‘directly from life’ in this way, the artist was keen to explore alternatives. He decided to work from subjects that centred on groups of figures: not people seen remotely, as from a roof, but observed close-up: and level with the onlooker, as if they and the onlooker occupied the same urban setting. It was hoped that persistent drawing on the spot might produce memories vivid enough to carry-over, whenever exploration of the subject continued in the studio.

Urban environments shape the lives of their users and inhabitants, just as human needs and attitudes shape these environments. Perhaps some similar reciprocity applies in drawing and painting, and in the empathy observers bring to understanding the artist’s own approach and process. Just as direct experience prompts all such experiments, these same experiments might themselves prompt new ways of experiencing.

Ian Caughlin (b.1948), 2024