New York City Beat - Neil Dawson

I have returned to my two favourite cities; London and New York, for my autumn collection. I love both these energising cities, they are both full of movement, colour and vibrancy and a constant source of inspiration.

In the spring collection 2010, I introduced pieces made entirely of my dots and have really enjoyed continuing to experiment with this method, a technique that of course owes much to pointillism. "Hurry Home" and "New York City Beat" are engagingly chaotic city streets, so typical of London and New York. I hope the use of dots helps create the illusion of movement and flux as they will encourage the eye to shift focus and explore the picture. This combined with the use of lots of colour and contrast hopefully recreates the dynamism and energy of the cities that I find so appealing.

"Midnight Manhattan" is a more serene landscape, a sweeping panorama of the dramatic Manhattan skyline viewed looking across the Hudson River from New Jersey. The picture features some of the recognisable silhouettes, notably the Empire State Building and the inviting lights of the city twinkling in the night sky.

"Pall Mall" depicts one of the world's most famous streets looking towards one of the world's most famous landmarks, Buckingham Palace. It's a slightly  different style to most of my work but I enjoy playing around with techniques, mixing and matching to best capture the mood of the photographic references I use and the style of final picture I want to create. In this case, the beautiful light as the sun sets and the contrast of the blazing headlights of the taxis meant I discarded my usual array of dots and went for something more "traditional"