McFadyen was born in Paisley, Scotland and studied at Chelsea School of Art. His early works were alive with imagery taken from newspapers, cartoons, films and advertising, and he has always been a keen observer of the city, very often in the East End, where he lives and works. From the 1960s to the 1980s, most of London’s former docks were closed down, as containerisation and new technologies meant that the old dock areas of London were no longer competitive. The docklands area remained one of the most neglected parts of London until the early 1980s, when it was singled out as a major commercial opportunity, and the London Docklands Development Corporation was created by a new Local Government Planning and Land Act. This gouache was done when Canary Wharf, ‘one of the most highly specified urban areas in the world’ was being built, those that build these glittering towers at odds with those who will inhabit them.

Thresholds, British Council 2010