"Waiting for a place behind the geraniums", by Erik Pevernagie, oil on canvas, 100 x 80 cm.

Waiting is a battle against time. Waiting is time going by and it can be enjoyed, when we are in a privileged state of hope or looking forward. Conversely, waiting can be time wasted or killed, when we are in a state of distress and anguish.

"Espere" in Spanish, is the one word covering two meanings: "waiting" and "hoping".

If life, however, offers no expectation or prospect, waiting represents time "wasted”. Waiting needs a future. If not, time is condemned to be "killed". In the event that we are lost in a gap of boredom and despair, we are driven back in a vacuum of senselessness and deadlocked in a point of nothingness. We are , so therefore, bound to watch the agony of "time".

A man sitting at his window behind his familiar flowers, impatiently waiting for retirement, is an iconographic representation of time going by, an image belonging to the picture gallery of our collective memory. The depiction guides the viewer by means of geometrical compositions and lines through chronological and psychological time..

Phenomenon: Killing time instead of enjoying time

Factual starting point of the painting: Person behind flowers