Battersea Power Station: Storm Light

Battersea Power Station is London's most dramatic ruin. Four white chimneys rising out of red brick, standing on the Thames like a cathedral of industry. For decades it sat empty, slowly falling apart, while the city argued about what to do with it.

Now it's being redeveloped – luxury apartments, shops, restaurants. The usual. But for this painting, I wanted to capture what it felt like before all that. When it was just a structure holding its ground against time and weather.

The day I painted this, the sky was threatening rain. Dark clouds rolled in from the west, heavy and purple-gray, making the power station's brick look even redder by contrast. The new buildings next to it – glass and steel, all clean lines – looked almost apologetic next to its bulk.

There's something about painting industrial architecture that feels honest. No one built power stations to be beautiful. They built them to work. But time and light do what they do, and suddenly you're standing there thinking: this is magnificent.

The storm never came that day. The clouds just hung there, dramatic and moody, while the power station stood its ground like it's been doing for nearly a century.