New public art at Hampstead Heath station

Evenings’ Hill, created by artist Clare Woods, extends the entire length of the platform, so passengers can enjoy it whether they are using the Overground station or just passing by on a train.

Clare is known for her dramatic, large-scale paintings of landscapes, and this site-specific, permanent artwork in porcelain tiles takes its inspiration from the local surroundings, in particular the pools of Hampstead Heath. She examined historic maps of Hampstead dating from 1866 to 1915 and identified that the pools were the one geographical constant throughout this time of rapid urban development.

Clare is not alone in depicting the pools; they have been the subject matter for many artists, including the painter John Constable.

“I wanted to get a ‘feel’ of the Heath in my work; this open space in the heart of a city,” says Clare, who graduated from Goldsmith’s College in 1999 and has exhibited widely in the UK. “This is a more abstracted notion of the landscape, creating a sense of a place, or a feel of an expanse.”

Producing the project involved Clare initially making photographic studies of the pools, which were translated into drawings and then a large watercolour painting. Digital transfers of her painting were fired onto the porcelain tiles.

This is the second artwork commissioned through the London Overground Public Art Programme. Tod Hanson’s The Elliptical Switchback at Haggerston, on London Overground’s East London route, was the first permanent artwork to be commissioned by London Overground.