“London Big Ben Sensation”

The subject

A Sensation of Westminster

This is Big Ben let off the leash — the tower half-dissolving into colour, part drawing, part burst of pigment. It belongs to my ’Sensation’ sheets, where the place matters less than the feeling of it.

The Elizabeth Tower rises over Parliament Square at the heart of Westminster, the seat of British government on the bank of the Thames. It is one of the most drawn buildings on earth — which is precisely why I wanted to draw it differently.

So here the method is an ink skeleton and then an explosion of watercolour: washes flooded on, allowed to drip, splattered and left. The tower stands in the middle of the storm of colour, recognisable but unsettled.

It is the opposite of a careful architectural study — the jolt of the thing rather than its measurements.

The ink does just enough: the clock face, the ribs of the spire. Everything else is weather and colour.

First of five, it sets the key for the series — the familiar made strange again by pure sensation.

See also · London The London Big Ben · London Big Ben small · Sailing Sensations