Cyclamen (croquis pour un tableau)

 

 

January can be a cruel and colourless month. The acquisition of a giant cyclamen was the perfect antidote. Here it is painted in acrylics on paper as a preparatory sketch for a later painting.

Cornish Blue and Basil

>Cornish blue and basil< Oil, Acrylic and Gesso on canvas

I am inspired by everyday things I find haphazardly placed on my kitchen shelves. I pick up shells and pebbles on Cornish beaches and recall Walter Benjamin's famous text about personal narrative and oral history . The beauty and transcience of a butterfly in the garden here in France hovering above a cup of sunlight. And Basil , my Father's and Great Uncles name becomes at once a handy culinary herb as well as strands of  family history.
The chair at my table is the Loveday-Lewis one that belonged to my partner Nichollas Hamper's and Beau-Frere Billy Childish's Grandmother.
There is the ghost of a clock in the background. This is not real time. It is a poetic space that wavers between reality and imagination.