Shut

Having completed a second painting derived from my photographs of closed industrial shutters, (‘Closed 2’), I’m very attuned to finding more examples of the breed.  My image collecting excursions around Leicester often occur at weekends and take me into zones of light industry so closed shutters are not uncommon.  Here are a couple of my latest finds…

I love the battered dilapidation of the red shutters with their ad hoc signage and prominent padlock, (parking and security are major preoccupations in these places).  Red pigments are traditionally notorious for fading in ultra violet and these shutters demonstrate that beautifully.

The white shutters fill a wide entrance into a large, very shabby building in an obscure side street and loud roaring and crashing sounds punctuated by excited shouts intrigued me as I approached them.  It seems the building is now occupied by a youth project catering for local skateboarders in a classic example of urban transformation.  A cavernous space that once resounded to the sounds of industry now echoes with the noise of urethane wheels on plywood ramps.

Visually, both these examples demonstrate how an essentially blank corrugated surface can become captivatingly accented by the details of locks, door furniture, graffiti, signage and damage.  I love the idea that they are essentially the same but different each time and am wondering if the first two ‘Closed’ paintings might become part of more extensive series…