The View from My Window —London, Cricklewood, 2017

Every morning, before I was properly awake, I opened my eyes to the same row of houses opposite my bedroom window in Cricklewood, North London.

In those first few minutes I wasn't really studying them. I was still half asleep, looking almost without thinking. But the houses were always there — the bay windows, rooftops, chimneys, gates and all the small architectural details. Seeing them every morning meant that, almost without noticing, I became increasingly familiar with them.

Over time, I started paying more attention. I noticed the differences between each façade, the rhythm created by the windows and roofs, and the way the houses seemed to press closely against one another. The more familiar the view became, the less ordinary it felt.

In 2017, that repeated act of looking developed into this large coloured pencil drawing on paper, measuring 150 × 150 cm. Working at that scale allowed me to transform something completely everyday into an image with a much stronger physical presence.

The lines move between blue, purple, pink and red, building the architecture through overlapping marks rather than precise description. The perspective shifts slightly, the buildings bend and some details become exaggerated. The drawing was never meant to be an exact record of the street. What interested me was how looking at the same place every day had started to change the way I saw it.

Looking at the drawing now, I can recognise ideas that continue to appear in my work: closed windows, hidden interiors and the suggestion of lives taking place just out of view. There are no figures, but there is still a sense of human presence behind the architecture.

In the end, the drawing became less about the houses themselves and more about familiarity, memory and the strange way an ordinary view can slowly acquire emotional weight.

Cricklewood, North London, 2017
Coloured pencil on paper
150 × 150 cm

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