A Painting About Speedy Dating

2.2m x 1.86m oil on canvas

The Gossip of Grace Moore

‘The Gossip of Grace Moore’ is 80 x 40cm. They didn’t burn bras really, women. Though it would be a good idea. Grace Moore took hers off and put it in a bin during a Miss World contest in 1969 as a protest against the parade. The de-braing (from under her shirt) became bra burning, a much more radical and historically combustible reference to the destruction of cultural identity and fascism. The media whipped this singular act into mass bra burnings and this is the image we retain in our minds. Anyway, women don’t need bras anymore because Kim Kardashians shapewear provides everything the natural body needs. Hurrah for Kimmy.

Taming of the Beast

45cm x 30cm oil on canvas

Showboat

1.4m x 80cm Oil on Canvas. Again, exploring moral conflicts, this painting emerged from the news stories of the disastrous flight from Afghanistan which were overridden in some media by the quandry of saving some cats and dog. The saving of these animals was to somehow symbolise human compassion and civilisation, but at the expense of de-valuing human life.

Fools Gold

‘Fools Gold’ oil on canvas 40cm x 20cm so a small piece. Lots of small pieces on the go at the moment next to a giant epic one which is probably going to take half the year. It takes a lot of sociolinguistic not to look at work when it’s on your mind, but it’s best to turn it around and let it dry and see it fresh for me, during the stages of working when I do a lot of layering.

The Draw of Aldebergh

34 x 20cm. Oil on canvas. Made after a recent trip to Suffolk to Aldeburgh. Actually, to be fair, the power station is Sizewell, and work on reactor 3 is just beginning. My eldest so. is fascinated with nuclear power and can actually explain it (I think), so we spent a fair bit of time on the beautiful beach at Sizewell. As ever, my subject matter is contradictions and confusions and me trying to figure out what all this is about - where rules actually make sense and demonstrate consistency. Aldebergh and nearby coastal towns are absolutely train set model villages and the price tag reflects this, yet Sizewell looms on the horizon like a futuristic menace. We always associate nuclear reactors with something we don’t want to live near, to wastelands and forgotten parts of the country, but this really isn’t true. We live alongside all this stuff, just often not so visually dominant as a nuclear power station, whose presence doesn’t seem to inhibit house prices. I’m glad of this. I’m glad that there appears to be some equality in where such places are built as we tend to think only those without power and influence get these places dumped on their doorstep. I find the place intriguing and fascinating and quite beautiful. It is, after all, magic. And I can see the wind farms on the horizon … so this painting explores the perceived toxicity of such environments.. truth or concept?

Blue Angel, 2.2m x 1.85m Oil on Canvas

Addressing inherted superiority, the women guard the blue angel who has set a fire. They are getting told off. The Blue Angel, biblically, represents strength and justice. The figures in the background throw flames from the fire rather than water on to it reflecting the futility of their grasp on power.

'Garden of Eden, 2023' After Rubens and Bruegel Oil on Canvas 2.2m x 1.85

Ruben and Bruegels' Garden of Eden was very much a romantic biblical scene. Taking this as a base for todays Eden, I have shifted colour, animals and god to be man shaping woman in a classic garden with the house symbolising his decline in the background. It also hints at female mutilation to achieve an unreal beauty.

The Multiplying Factor Oil on Canvas 1.4m x 1m

Also called Cat v Dog v Chickens, the animals symbolise how we categorise each other to create instant prejudice without knowledge and simultaneously alludes to immigration, racism, segregation and prejudice.

'A Painting About Leaving' 1.6m x 1.2m Oil on Canvas

The woman on the right takes simple belonging and goes elsewhere, watched by a bystander. You sense she is the 'other' - something, perhaps her posessions, are being burnt in the background.

A Painting About Solving The Mystery of The Disappearance of Amelia Earhart

Oil on Canvas 2.1m x 1.8m
An alternative theory of Amelia Earharts' disappearance crossing the Atlantic by plane alluding to Homers Odyssey and the Sirens.

Decline and Fall - Rise of A Nation State

Oil on Canvas, 2023, 2.2m x 1.86
This is a work exploring conflict, Brexit, the dangers of nationalism and attempts at preservation of the past. The use of sandcastles as symbols of disintegrating power and the attempt to maintain it by the placement of beach flags alludes to economic deterioration. In the background, an Hogarthian rabble point to unrest as crumbling statues and columns decorate the skyscape. The militarisation of the brownies is a purposeful nod towards singular thinking and the widowed figure on the left represents the ensuing conflict. Colours are specifically chosen to reflect war in Europe and red, white and blue, as the colours of the UK.

A Painting About If Adam Was a Brewer

Oil on Canvas, 2022, 2.2m x 1.86
I am suggesting that if Adam discovered he could make cider or calvados when Eve plucked the apple, the world could have become a different place. God is in despair as his church falls, and Eve has no need to cover her body in shame as she keeps Adam working on the brewing.

A Painting About Greed

Oil and Canvas, 2023 2m x 1.8m
This and its sister picture ‘The Other Last Supper’ explore greed, here in its form as resource hungry and harvesting in all its brutality and destruction.

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The Last Supper (Greed)

Oil on Canvas, 2023, 2m x 1.8m
A sister painting to 'A Painting About Greed', this reflects consumption, in particular consumption to impress and to excess. The relationships between the women around the table are familiar to us all in the experience of supper parties where one-upmanship becomes verdant.

A Painting About a Womans' Right to Live Her Life as She Lives Thank you (After Roe v Wade)

Oil on Canvas 2022 2.2m x 1.86
Made in response to the 2022 judgement in the USA preventing women from receiving abortions even if they have been raped, the painting charts a narrative through time, starting in the background with a teenage kiss, towards domestication in the foreground. Hints of the cultural and financial powerlessness inflicted on women when they become mothers are dotted throughout the painting, from the nun guard on the right hand side, the witch in front of the bonfire, the cat and her kittens and the appeal from the butcher woman for consumption of the rabbits' blood.

Breach of Solitude

Oil on Canvas,, 2022, 5ft x 4.2"
This painting can be read on two levels - firstly as a simple serene painting of women with children by the water, but secondly, in the background, there is a hawker representing the inevitable harassment on its way. The goat as a symbol of virility is a purposeful point to the lack of peace women get generally, when in a bathing costume.

The Back Room

Oil on Canvas 2020 2.6m x 1.7
An empowerment picture of women having a lot of fun

Time to Leave

Oil on Canvas, 2020, 1.8m x 1.6cm

Still Life

Oil on Canvas, 2022, 1.86m x 1.6
This painting focuses on the domestication of women and how the life for many has not changed in the 'modern' world. When structures don't change to enable freedom of movement outside the house, womens' lives remain still.

Dog Walk

Oil on Canvas, 2021, 2.1m x 1.86
From the lockdown series, I often use animals to reflect true thought as they are not restricted by cultural niceties. The dog walker is dissaproving of the kissing couple, but it is her dog she allows to piss on the bench.

Kiss

Oil on Canvas, 2020, 1.m x 80 cm

Kiss2

Oil on Canvas, 2020, 1.2m x 80 cm

Bench Kissing

Oil on Canvas, 2020, 1.8m x 1.4cm