Waiting Room, Cancer Clinic (2022) reveals the sterility of the clinical setting of the waiting room. The scene is clean, and the colour is low saturation yet lit by a pale fluorescent light. Concentrating on the light- the shadow and light have captured the institutional environment of a hospital well; the scene’s elements are well-polished, and the positioning of the perspective allows the viewer to see through an obscured part of the scene. This creates an atmosphere of uncertainty and vulnerability, which one may feel while waiting to be called by the doctor.
The subject of the painting is personal to Watkins as he had been diagnosed with cancer (which has since been cleared), and the painting had been made after being diagnosed. The chairs are empty in the room, reinforcing the feeling of solitude and the idea that waiting and emptiness within the clinic create anxiety due to its desertion. The emptiness paired with the patient unknowing whether they are about to get diagnosed creates vulnerability in the viewer.
Classroom (2020) creates an extremely liminal scene that feels hauntingly still- the colours are dark and there is only one source of light adding to this desolation and solitude of the place. The absence of people from this classroom brings the viewer to think and reflect upon space that is usually busy and full of interaction within the frame of silence and a memory. This is especially so as Watkins wandered the empty school during teaching evening classes only adds to this exploration of the silence and solitude.
This absence takes the viewer and brings them into this space; the space is now cold without interaction. The light from the window is not warm but rather pale, which adds to this isolatory feel and solitude. The perspective of the piece seems to be at the entrance, contrasting this isolation as it seems to invite the viewer. It allows the viewer to contemplate and reflect on themselves as they are left in this quiet atmosphere.
Click and Collect (2023) perfectly portrays the atmosphere of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic as it is empty, quiet and still. This reflects the abrupt end to most human activity in public spaces during the pandemic and how this sudden silence detaches the retail parking lot environment from its intended purpose and thus creates uneasiness. The parking space lines, and their repetition, along with the dead trees, help to add more isolation to the work as it highlights how vast this empty space is. The work successfully shows how the world paused during the pandemic as the deserted retail park feels eery and dead.
The work’s title reinforces this feeling as ‘click and collect’ is an action where one detaches themselves from human interaction to collect their groceries. Therefore, this reduces human connection to become one of only transaction- to drive, pick up, and leave. This action was common during the pandemic and only caused loneliness and detachment from human connection. The perspective and the lack of people within the scene thus help to give it a very surrealistic style as it feels as though this scene is a memory or dream – or perhaps within our subconscious due to the liminality of it.
Overall, these three paintings take the viewer into spaces often inhabited by people yet isolated and solitary. These scenes are overlooked scenes within contemporary human life, yet these connections are severed as they become liminal. This liminal feeling of the work brings the viewer and encourages them to reflect and meditate within this quietness and solitude.