This painting depicts the front of a derelict building which is located around the corner from my parents’ house and where I grew up. I’d just returned to Liverpool after living in the Netherlands. I’d been away for some time and due to Covid restrictions I’d not been able to visit. Those first few days when you come back from living elsewhere always feel a little surreal. I walked past this building and suddenly felt very grounded in the reality of ‘yep, I’m back in Liverpool’. I took a photograph at the time(see below) which I used as a reference for the painting.

These types of derelict, boarded-up buildings are common in North Liverpool and Kirkdale. Lots of them are visually striking and talk to questions and perceptions of the human sense of place, of being and of home. Liverpool has long experienced social housing shortages and poor housing conditions are common. These types of buildings, which can sit empty for years, are often used by people who need shelter due to say homelessness, but at the same time they are boarded and sealed up. The building holds a history with humans, but also with the animals and plants who have and will occupy it; the boards and concrete windows will not prevent their habitation.

There were lots of interesting textures existing in this one place, both natural and man-made: brick, concrete, metal, plastic, glass, wood, and plants. Plus, deterioration elements like peeling paint, rusting metal, crumbling bricks, and a smashed window, yet the buddleia was thriving and lush. I also liked the touch that someone had taken the time to graffiti butterflies on the boards given the buddleia, aka ‘butterfly bush’.