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Firstsite becomes a giant painting in Simon Carter’s most ambitious exhibition to date

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What happens when an artist turns an entire gallery into a painting?

From 19 September 2026 – 17 January 2027, acclaimed Essex artist Simon Carter will transform Firstsite’s galleries into a vast, immersive landscape of paint, architecture and sound in what will be the largest and most ambitious exhibition of his 40-year career.

From the Landscape invites visitors to step inside a giant artwork. Carter will paint directly onto the gallery walls, construct monumental architectural interventions inspired by the Essex coastline, and create a sensory environment that blurs the boundaries between painting, landscape and lived experience.

At the heart of the exhibition is a spectacular 19-metre installation carrying 500 monochrome painted sketches, alongside major new works created especially for the show.

Visitors will also have the unusual opportunity to witness parts of the exhibition being made, watching the artist and his team as the galleries themselves become the artwork.

Rooted in four decades of observing and walking the Essex landscape, the show speaks to current conversations around place, environment and the enduring power of painting.

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A specialist spray tanning studio, founded by a tanning expert who trained in Los Angeles, London and Scotland, has officially opened on Crown Street in central Brentwood. Sunkiss Society by Nicole is the work of Essex-born Nicole Carson Spence, who trained with leading industry professionals and celebrity spray tan experts across Los Angeles, London and Scotland before bringing that specialist experience back to her hometown, Brentwood. It is a depth of dedicated tanning training rarely found locally, where spray tanning is usually offered as one service among many, and it underpins everything the studio does: every tan is tailored to complement a client’s individual colouring, rather than a one-size-fits-all result. For Nicole, it started with what she saw a great tan do for people. Travelling the world with behind-the-scenes access to the entertainment industry, she saw first-hand the importance of a great tan, and the difference that expert technique and a flawless finish can make. In Los Angeles in particular, she saw spray tanning treated as a specialist beauty service in its own right, rather than a last-minute pre-holiday treatment – an approach she has brought home with her. She fell in love with the confidence boost she saw a great spray tan give someone, and it set her on a mission to deliver that same feeling for others, back home in Brentwood. Crucially, Sunkiss Society is a specialist studio rather than a general beauty salon: it is dedicated entirely to spray tanning. The purpose-built studio has been designed to feel welcoming and friendly, while offering a modern, calm, spacious, clean, and luxurious environment, moving away from the traditional perception of a spray tan appointment. Sunkiss Society offers a carefully curated menu of professional spray tanning treatments, using modern equipment and premium tanning solutions, including renowned brands Dolce Glow and Vita Liberata. The studio is also bringing a modern, skin-conscious approach to tanning. Nicole has carefully selected the formulas used at Sunkiss Society for both their finish and their skincare-focused ingredients, reflecting a wider beauty movement towards products that do more than deliver a cosmetic result and truly look after the skin. The launch comes at a time when conversations around sun safety and the risks associated with UV tanning and sunbeds continue to encourage people to rethink how they achieve a bronzed look. For Nicole, creating an alternative that still gives clients the confidence and ritual associated with having a tan was an important part of Sunkiss Society. “People shouldn’t have to choose between loving the way they look with a tan and being conscious of their skin,” she said. “Spray tanning gives us the ability to create that beautiful glow without relying on UV exposure.” Nicole’s approach is personal and relaxed, with client comfort at the heart of what can be considered quite an intimate beauty treatment. Treatments include classic developing tans, clear tanning formulas, express options and premium solutions, with the final shade and formula selected specifically for each client. Rather than a simple choice of “light, medium or dark”, every appointment is fully personalised: Nicole considers a client’s natural skin tone, undertones, desired depth of colour, the occasion and their preferred finish, before recommending the most appropriate tan. The studio is built around the idea that a tan is for everyday confidence and self-care, not only for holidays, weddings or photoshoots. The name Sunkiss Society reflects Nicole’s ambition to create a welcoming community in Brentwood around confidence, self-care and feeling good in your own skin and adds a new independent beauty business to the town centre. Speaking on the launch, founder Nicole Carson Spence said: “Having trained with some of the best spray tanning professionals in the industry, I’ve seen first-hand the difference that a truly personalised experience and an expertly applied tan can make to someone’s confidence. “I wanted to bring that experience home to Brentwood, where tanning is already such a big part of beauty culture, but create somewhere that approaches it differently. “It’s rare to find a studio dedicated solely to spray tanning, rather than tanning being one treatment on a long beauty menu. I wanted Sunkiss Society to feel like its own experience – somewhere welcoming and relaxed, where clients feel comfortable, their tan is designed completely around them, and they leave feeling like the best version of themselves. That’s really what Sunkiss Society is about.”
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