{"id":16159,"date":"2016-07-21T13:02:28","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T11:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/en\/?p=16159"},"modified":"2025-12-12T11:24:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T10:24:21","slug":"urban-landscape-artist-tom-cox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ferrovial.com\/blog\/en\/2016\/07\/urban-landscape-artist-tom-cox\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Cox \u2013 Painting the Urban Landscape"},"content":{"rendered":"

One day we received a notification to our Twitter account<\/a> with the following photo.<\/p>\n

\"Urban<\/a><\/p>\n

The photo was of one of our construction sites<\/strong> for the Northern Line Extension<\/a> in London and the tweet was from a young London based artist called Tom Cox<\/a>. The vibrant colours, the quality of the artwork and the somewhat unconventional choice of theme for the canvas really struck us and we were curious to find out more!<\/p>\n

We got in touch with Tom to find out more about why construction sites are a source of inspiration for him, the challenges of a construction painting and what would be his ideal city and building to paint. Here\u2019s what he told us\u2026<\/p>\n

An Interview with London artist Tom Cox<\/h2>\n
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  • What made you decide to send us the Tweet?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    As an artist I observe, reflect and paint the environment in which I live – London. I have found Twitter to be of great use in connecting the appropriate community with each artwork. For example when I paint a construction, I think who would be interested to see this? How can I share my interpretation of the world<\/strong> that they experience on a daily basis? Naturally, in “Expansion”, I wanted to give you the opportunity to see the world you know at Ferrovial, in a new light.<\/p>\n

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    • Can you tell us the story behind the painting that you have done of our Northern Line construction work?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      I was passing the site on the 159 bus, which I take every day to my studio in Lambeth North. The scene of the diggers both directing their large yellow frames towards the centre of the site naturally created a focal point which caught my eye. I quickly took my camera out and crossed the top deck to take a snap before the bus pulled away. I was very pleased with the image an took it back to my studio translate into paints.<\/p>\n

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      • What materials did you use to create the painting?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Painted from my original photograph of the scene I used Indian ink<\/strong> to sketch out the scene on a 100 x 50cm canvas. I have been employing this technique in the last 6 months to create expressive, bold forms<\/strong> in my paintings. I then painted over the sketched scene with oil paints for around 3 weeks until the scene was complete.<\/p>\n

        Watch this video of the creative process behind Expansion<\/h3>\n