'Memories From The Present' : 'Frozen', 2024

The painting: It's just after sunset. A peach and blue twilight fills the clear sky. At the bottom of the painting is a road, just above this road is a line of green box hedge. Above this is a prefabricated building with a few trees in a row in front of it. The building is very definitely closed. The bright orange B&Q sign can be glimpsed behind one of the trees.

Aside from supermarkets (which didn’t close) this was one of the first businesses that reopened after the first lockdown in 2020. I remember walking by and seeing people, in a long line spread very thinly about 2m apart. It was such a strange eerie moment. The front of the place seemed slightly at odds to what we were all going through. There was something about this 1980’s building and the bright orange of its signage that felt like a constant, a frozen in time one. I still can’t quite put my finger on the strange sensation of seeing this building during the time. There’s something strangely stoic about the building though I may admit this could be a projection on my part.