120 x 100 x 4 cm

lthough Ghone had never been to Germany when he created this painting, he had already become fascinated by its railway system through stories and videos shared by his mother. She introduced him to the U-Bahn, S-Bahn, tram, and ICE trains, explaining that while the U-Bahn often travels underground, the S-Bahn runs above ground through the city. From that moment, Ghone excitedly declared that riding the S-Bahn was something he wanted to experience one day.
Inspired by this imagined journey, Ghone selected a rainbow-inspired background as the foundation of the painting. He then poured black paint across the canvas and used a window squeegee to pull long, sweeping lines, creating abstract forms that resemble the body of a train, railway tracks, and the sense of motion as the S-Bahn travels across the city.
Around the central composition, Ghone layered expressive colours to build the landscape he imagined. Green represents the trees lining the railway, while a blue and silver palette evokes the open sky. Soft pink and blue hues appear around the triangular forms, suggesting a rainbow glowing across the scene and adding a dreamlike atmosphere to his vision of Germany.
As the painting evolved, Ghone poured additional colours in varying shades across the canvas. Sometimes he blended the paint with his fingers, while at other moments he used a balloon to stamp playful circular textures. True to his creative process, he also incorporated some of his favourite toys—including Thomas & Friends locomotives, Tomica vehicles, and Hot Wheels cars—rolling them through the wet paint to leave energetic tracks and spontaneous marks that celebrate his lifelong fascination with vehicles.
Rather than depicting a literal train, The Wheels on the S-Bahn captures the excitement of a destination imagined before it is ever experienced. It is a painting about curiosity, anticipation, and the limitless imagination of childhood, where stories become memories before the journey has even begun. Long before arriving in Berlin, Ghone had already travelled there through his art.