Artists Inspired by London: Susie Hamilton draws and paints her fellow commuters
Drawing at speed without anyone noticing.
Susie Hamilton is a contemporary artist who has been painting figures in both urban and natural wildernesses. In late 2023, she started drawing and painting people while travelling on the District Line, making quick drawings of seated figures, distorting them through the speed of her drawing. This collection of works has just been released as a book titled ‘Underground’.
How did the Underground series come about?
In December 2023, I travelled from Mile End to Turnham Green on the District line every evening because one of my husband’s plays, ‘The Elephant in the Room’, was showing at the Tabard theatre in Chiswick.
Rather than just sitting there staring into space, I thought I’d draw some of the passengers as I usually carry a sketchbook and pencils in my bag. These little drawings then led to an ongoing series of paintings on bigger paper, found cardboard and huge ‘Rags’ of unstretched canvas.
How do you choose which persons to draw?
It can be fairly arbitrary, as I draw whoever is seated opposite or near me, although I often focus on women, older women, or people with spectacular clothes, unusual figures, or loads of baggage.
Below the paywall:
More about how she chooses her subjects.
Do people ever notice Susie drawing them?
Why does she choose to paint on cardboard?
Her wider practice.
Her long list of London’s hidden gems.