Oil and acrylic on canvas
 
This painting was created for my exhibition Endless Summer at Saltdean Lido, and it’s inspired by the Butlins Brighton building - formerly known as the Ocean Hotel. In it’s heyday, this was a spectacular building with a wonderful red turret, a full size olympic swimming pool and the same fountain that can still be found at Saltdean Lido today.
 
Sadly, the hotel was closed and eventually turned into a block of flats, but I found this beautiful old image of the pool at night and couldn’t stop thinking about it. There was something in the lighting, the symmetry, and the atmosphere that reminded me of Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel. This painting has that same nostalgic, cinematic charm.
 
There’s a real focus on colour relationships in this piece - the blue and orange, the yellow and purple - those bold, complementary tones that play off each other and help bring a kind of dreamlike vibrancy to the whole scene. I love the warm glows of light spilling from the windows, capturing the romance of summer nights.
 
Venus is a love letter to lost places and beautiful architecture, and to the memories that continue to shimmer long after the lights have gone out.