Feature: Artist Ewing Paddock to glorify London's Underground

Published: 30 September, 2010
by JOSH LOEB

Artist Ewing Paddock has set out to capture the glory of London’s Underground – by recreating a little piece of it in his studio. 

WHEN painter Ewing Paddock turned 60 he rediscovered the “glories” of the London Underground and vowed to immortalise them on canvas. 

But lugging an easel down escalators earns you no friends among jostling commuters, and subjects are liable to stand up and dash out of the carriage doors at any second. And as for painting from photos, photography is technically banned on the Tube, and certainly frowned upon.

So he built a replica carriage in his studio – complete with yellow handrail and sign asking passengers to offer their seat to an elderly or disabled person – and invited the travelling public in so he could paint them at his leisure. 

“I’m good at making things,” he says. “So I didn’t find it difficult. I got foam for the seats from the Pentonville Rubber Company – one of the great shops of London. It’s at the top of Pentonville Road and you can buy any kind of rubber there – thin, thick, big splodges. 

“I tried contacting TfL to find out exactly what fabric they use but they have been quite unresponsive.”

The 65-year-old former graphic designer, who lives in Swiss Cottage, started off painting family members and friends, who sat for him with “props” – newspapers, umbrellas, iPods, books, babies and dogs – on the iconic blue seats he had constructed. 

Growing in courage, he headed to Belsize Park, dispensing leaflets about the project to people emerging from the station and inviting them to come to his studio in nearby Pond Street.

He says “serious artists” might sneer at the fruits of his labours, which are “completely representational”. 

“There’s no hidden angst,” he admits.

But the response from the public has been enthusiastic. 

“People were interested,” Ewing says. “Some were flattered that I wanted to paint them.”

A selection of his paintings will be exhibited at Burgh House in New End, Hampstead, next week. But he says that this is only the start of a project that he began in 2008.

“I’m having the time of my life,” says Ewing. “I want to paint a broader variety of people to represent the range of people who use the Underground. 

“The idea began when I got my Freedom Pass. 

I realised there’s this whole spectrum of people who use the Tube. It’s such a bloody marvellous thing. When you look at maps showing how deep the tunnels are, it makes you feel claustrophobic, yet somehow when you’re down there it can be strangely relaxing. 

“There could be awful aggression, but there isn’t. The most disparate kind of people are sitting next to each other. There is that code of ignoring – it’s so bloody civilised.”

Lined up together, the paintings look like one panorama. His dream is to exhibit them in an abandoned station, and it’s not so unrealistic an idea; Aldwych station, closed in the 1990s, was opened last week for a series of Blitz tours.

“I think people will enjoy staring at the paintings and making up stories about the people in them,” says Ewing. “Just like you do when you are travelling on the real Underground.”

• Ewing Paddock: Painting the London Underground, is at Burgh House, New End, NW3, from October 6-10. 020 7431 0144