Statement

This group of paintings takes the representation of photographs as their starting point. Images, often only a couple of inches square, are hugely enlarged.

In Cufflinks, Aeroplanes and Picnic, family photographs from the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s are used. My Dad appears in all of them. In one he plays with a cat outside a strange and unidentified building, in another he stands in R.A.F. uniform in the back garden of his family home during World War 2, and, lastly, he leans against a car, about to start a picnic, with my Grandmother and Sister.

In all of these pictures objects of personal significance float around the canvas. The texture, colour, scale and weight of each object are all important in evoking childhood memories.

Fairly bland photographs and everyday objects, through the enlargement in scale and the care in painting, take on a new significance.

I have tried to evoke a sense of the passing of time and to express visually the idea of memory, real or imagined.

Ladies and Toys shows images of women taken from fashion magazines obscured by childrens’ toys. Which set of images is more absurd? The artfully arranged and photographed, impossibly beautiful women, or the gentle, childish and cartoon-like representations of people and animals?

In 12 Portraits apparently random images of faces are arranged in rows. Whether these faces can be recognized may or may not be important. Fashion models mingle with the son of a war criminal, a spy, and a veteran from the Western Front among others. The dog could be a family pet, a guard dog or a racing champion.