Be Right Back

Be Right Back captures a quiet pause in an evening in Bristol. A solitary bicycle rests against the railings while warm street light catches the old cobbles beneath it, contrasting with the cool blue of the water and boats beyond. With nobody in sight, the painting leaves just enough evidence to imagine the life continuing somewhere beyond the frame.

The original photograph was taken during a short trip to Bristol with my dad. It was one of those compositions I knew immediately would become a painting one day.

What first caught my attention was the balance of colour: the yellow, orange and brown cobbles illuminated by a street light against the much cooler blues beyond the railing. A tiny reflection of red from a building across the water interrupts the palette, a small detail, but one that somehow makes the whole composition work.

Most of the canvas is deliberately given over to the cobbles. Their uneven surface also gave me an opportunity to return to a much more textural way of painting, building layers across the foreground so that the surface itself becomes part of the experience of the work.

But the bicycle gives the scene its story.

There are no people in the painting, only the suggestion that somebody has been there and will return. Perhaps its owner is finishing work, meeting friends or sitting in one of the nearby restaurants or bars.

That's where Be Right Back came from.

Rather than making the solitary bicycle feel abandoned, the title turns the scene into a pause, a quiet moment between one part of the evening and whatever happens next.