L.O.V.E Hotel

This painting I did in May/June of 2020 during the height of quarantine as a response to the Global Covid 19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests of Montreal. I had just moved to this new city and the lockdown and the massive crowds scared me deeply. The contrast between being told that there was a deadly virus and shutting down all of society and simultaneously occurring the messaging of the protesters caused me to become very depressed, anxious and confused. This was deeply disturbing to me and I questioned all things and became very distrustful in my attitude towards others. I thought I should paint something that would last longer than all of it, and started studying castles, stones and the architecture of the city during the day when few people were out. This painting shows the hotel, that is empty as no one is staying there but has beautiful public art in front of it. I liked that what is said outside about the hotel might be occurring inside. This is a wish I have often, that seeing something on the outside would help you know what would be unseen and hidden inside. I think that the shadows have lovely colours and I tried to pull the colours into the painting as much as possible so that the road might become a river, the windows green like trees and each light a small fire for the L.O.V.E. that is missing from the inside of the walls.

Acrylic on Panel