Portfolio Room from Cathy Read

A Bright Red Underground sign perches on top of a shiny pole. Standing like a lollipop, it virtually splits the painting down the middle. You see it towering overhead, as you look up from the underground entrance. Silver railings on the right break up your view of the street. The back of the Amba Hotel in Charing Cross, obvious from the ornate walkway that bridges the gap between the buildings on the third floor. They didn’t spare the detail on this one. Ornate to a point of vulgarity perhaps? Whatever your taste, the Amba Hotel‘s a building that’s hard to ignore. Although I wonder?
Have you noticed that people walk around cities in a trance? They spend years on the same commute and that makes them move automatically. Apart from the need to check for traffic, your average commuter misses most things, unless their attention is drawn to it by an unusual event.
The lollipop underground sign is framed by the buildings against a deep cerulean sky. Colours have bled from the walls and other details. Tinges of pink, brown and ochre struggle for attention, but that blue dominates. A few people mingle in the street, merging into the buildings. You hardly notice the blond girl or the youth with a back pack Look closely at the image, the structure on the right is drawn in such detail that there remains little of the colour. Contrast it with the walls above the Five guys building. The windows are defined but the walls are streaks of colour. Brickwork, a mere suggestion, but you see bricks. Reflections on stainless steel of the railings and the windows of the walkways show the outside world but there’s no hint at what lies behind the glass. In some cases the windows show darkness, the darkness of a private world. A world on which we can but speculate. What’s hidden in the shadows?
Charing Cross Underground station has a number of exits, but look up next time you’re there and this scene might just greet you.