City muse: Art comes to reside with Mammon

For the past three months, David Downes has been sitting it out on the 17th floor foyer of NYK Line's offices in Ropemaker Place as the first artist in residence for the giant Japanese shipping company.

Downes, pictured here with one of his paintings of the Swiss Re "Gherkin" building in the City, has a rare form of autism which gives him his extraordinary ability to visualise and then paint complex cityscapes from memory.

His position as artist in residence at NYK was arranged by Gig-Arts, an organisation which links business and artists, specialising in those who have a disability. Gig-Arts sets up deals which give the artists the room to create while the companies have something creative to show going on in their business but, unusual for the City, no money changes hands.

A private view of Downes's work at the Gigs-Art gallery opened last week. His delicate paintings of the City and Canary Wharf sell for between a few hundred and a few thousand pounds.