London over the M25 from Essex , 1998-2001
oil on canvas, 1820mm x 810mm

Private collection

background

The view is from Tylers Common, high ground in Essex where thousands are said to have gathered with Wat Tyler to march on London in The Peasants Revolt of 1381.

The wood is a fragment of old woodland at Brentwood. The edge of London shows a range of conflicting land use and suggests contrast between old nature and new culture, a thing that preoccupied English and French artists in the nineteenth century and is now a theme of contemporary art.

Painted over three years, the picture is an document of London at the turn of the century. It is in the tradition of distant prospects of cities dating from ancient Rome to the Renaissance and Breughel, seventeenth century topographers in England like Hollar and Siberechts, to Turner. Starting points for this painting included Turner's view of London from Greenwich of 1809 (Tate Britain), the work of Monet & Pissarro on the outskirts of Paris and van Gogh at Arles.

London represents modern England: power cables, telephone wires, pipelines, road, river and rail routes cross-crossing the land, contrails overhead. Magpies and house martins that have co existed with man since Breughel fly over a motorway that can be seen and heard for miles.

On the old hill a father with a child on his shoulders links past, present and future.