I Thought The World Was Going To End (2023)

At first glance, I Thought the World Was Going to End appears subdued — a solitary lighthouse emerging through a palette of greys and muted ochres. Yet the stillness of the composition betrays a deeper tension. This work explores the psychological residue that follows crisis: the eerie calm that remains when the expected catastrophe fails to arrive.

The lighthouse, traditionally a symbol of guidance and endurance, is recontextualised here as an emblem of futility. Its presence feels spectral, almost obsolete, set against a landscape that has already weathered its storm. The faint movement of birds and the low horizon suggest both distance and detachment, echoing a kind of emotional fatigue that lingers after prolonged fear.

Painted in 2023, this piece captures a moment of global and personal uncertainty, the year when endings felt imminent but never quite materialised. Through restrained tonal contrast and an intentionally sparse composition, I sought to express that strange equilibrium between dread and survival: a quiet in which nothing is truly over, yet nothing feels entirely alive.

In this way, the painting becomes less about apocalypse and more about endurance — the unsettling persistence of the ordinary world when the internal one has already fallen apart.

This digital painting was created using layered impasto-style brushwork and low-saturation blending to emulate the texture of oil on linen. Broad, dry strokes define the lower terrain, while the lighthouse is rendered with controlled luminosity to establish a visual anchor amidst tonal decay. The palette was deliberately limited — burnt umber, pale ochre, slate grey — to evoke the muted melancholy of overcast light. The work’s balance depends on restraint: a near-monochrome environment where every subtle shift in tone becomes emotionally charged.