From Willesden Green no.3 is an exciting and colourful response to Kossoff's local environment.

For Kossoff drawing and painting are a psychological imperative and each picture is a form of catharsis.His occasional artist's statements emphasise this link between what he sees and what he feels in which primacy is given to drawing as a means of engaging with the subject: 'My own work is about bringing out what's inside, letting loose thoughts and feelings.Art is a means of externalising and giving expression to what's inside. It's a means of discoveryThe finished work is important as something new, as something I didn't know I was capable of.' (Leon Kossoff, interview with James Hyman, 27 July 1987) 'It's true certain books seem to burn a hole in my mindpainters mean more than others've talked about theseI know I saw various exhibitions when I was a student, yet even fairly recently, though I did dozens of drawings from theMarsyas, I am unable to see howTitian has influenced me.My life long obsession has been to teach myself to drawonce I start work'art' stays one side of an invisible barrierall works on a much deeper level.' (Leon Kossoff, letter to James Hyman, 10 October 1989). Kossoff's drawings of the late 1980s and early 1990s are some of his most powerful and were the subject of an exhibition specifically devoted to the artist's drawings atAnthony d'Offay Gallery in 1993. Kossoff's depiction of London is at the centre of his work, as Kossoff explains: The strange ever changing light, the endless streets and the shuddering feel of the sprawling city lingers in my mind like a faintly glimmering memory of a long forgotten perhaps never experienced childhood,which, if rediscovered and illuminated,would ameliorate the pain of the present. (Leon Kossoff, artist's statement in Leon Kossoff, Fischer FineArt, 1987). These panoramas of the city are, in part, prefigured by paintings byTurner such as Rain,Steam and Speed (1844) Ultimately, however,Kossoff has always been aware that art has its own unique impact and that art historical references and biographical information may distance the viewer from the experience of the artwork: 'When people look at a work they shouldn't spend so much time looking for influences. It avoids fully confronting or responding to what is shown.The viewer must be honest about why a work is moving or profound.' (Leon Kossoff, interview with James Hyman, 27 July 1987).