This work is an outgrowth of the Route Map Graphics work completed in 2000. I wanted to produce a series of paintings depicting the crossing, in downtown Boston, of the four subway lines — Red, Green, Blue and Orange.

Plan and elevation drawings were made of the four subway lines to determine their size, slope and spatial relationship. Four additional drawings were made to depict a corner view, allowing two elevations to be shown on a single graphic. These became the layout instructions for the paintings.

A white cardboard model was constructed to depict the subway lines three dimensionally. The model was sized to fit into a cube approximately seven inches on a side. To evaluate the model's shadows, photographs were taken of it under four different lighting conditions. The photos with the most dynamic shadows were enlarged to depict the four corners under morning and afternoon lighting.

The shadow lines were added to the previously made corner drawings and areas of the drawing were marked to indicate the type of light being received — full light, lightly raked light, deeply raked light and shadow. Paint colors were selected for each primary color and for each of its lessening light conditions. The paint color names were written onto the appropriate areas of the drawings.

In downtown Boston, the subways' crossing generates stations which are, in the southwest, Park Street, in the northwest, Government Center, in the northeast, State Street, and in the southeast, Downtown Crossing. In the paintings, the stations are shown in yellow resting between the various subway colors. The paintings take their names from the station centered in each depiction.

Malcolm Montague Davis