Explanations Of New Works

Prelude To A Dream Oil on Canvas 152 x 91 cm 2013

All of us have rituals which we live by. Some are an intrinsic part of childhood, a short but important part of life on which we build our understanding of the world. In this work I wanted to capture the joy of the small but significant ritual of the bed time story and try to impart the feeling of security, happiness and wonder it brought me as a child. Dressing up like ones favorite characters in a book is a special treat for any child and I have chosen to show these children in the moments before bed when the story has been mentioned but is yet to be read. Their anticipation has become a palpable thing. Upon the book perches a brilliant blue butterfly, the symbol of the words about to take flight in their imaginations. Around them many other butterflies flutter. These represent the memories of other past stories, snippets of inspiration, moments of pure joy that remain from other evenings. They will stay with the children forever, even as they grow up and fill the world of their dreams with wonder.

Master Durand’s Tall Tale Moth Book Pages Indian Ink And Varnish On Vintage Book Cover 20 x 13 cm 2013

Ever since I was a child I have loved Victorian boxed butterflies and insects. There is something very endearing about the Victorian love of specimen collecting. In this group of works I have looked at the interest children have both in collecting interesting natural objects and the importance of capturing stories that are precious and preserving them. This butterfly tells a story mapped out in pen and ink upon varnished wings to give life to a moment in time.

-A “Rambling” Story.-A boy of twelve, named Durand, was recently arrested at Lens, in France, for travelling in a railway train without a ticket. He told a remarkable story of having left Paris with two companions, who visited with him most of the seaside resorts of the north of France, the money being furnished by one of the youths, who had “found” 1,000 francs (about 40 pounds). Finally, they shut Durand in a bathing machine and deserted him. On getting out, he took the train to Paris in order to return to his parents. On inquiry, it was discovered that the entire story was an invention of Master Durand. It is true that his parents reside in Paris, but, on being referred to, they explained that their son is much given to making hare-brained excursions of this kind when he gets money or is sent on an errand, and he is frequently being brought back from similar pilgrimages. Between his taste for adventure and his tendency to fiction it is difficult to decide whether this boy would do better as an explorer or a novelist.

This extraordinary excerpt from Chums boys annual is just the kind of thing that children around the world dream of doing. It’s wonderfully illustrative of the lengths some children will go to to construct an imaginary world for themselves and one must wonder whatever became of Master Durand? This butterfly sits on the cover of Evelyn Sharp's 1903 novel ‘The Children Who Ran Away.’

Master Of The High Seas Oil on Canvas 122 x 92 cm 2013

Adventure is foremost in the mind of this young child. Pinned to the nursery wall is a simplified map of the British Imperial Federation which displays British colonies in pink. For Christmas 1879 this little child has been given a treasure, ‘The Captains Children’ by Mrs. D. P. Sanford. Dreams of travelling to extraordinary places fuel this young imagination and the strange creatures in the novel serve to make the prospect of the journey even more tantalizing. Two groups of objects rest on the floor at  the child’s feet. The nest containing eggs on the left symbolizes the knowledge of past generations and the moon on the right represents possibilities which can only be dreamed of.

Queen For A Day Oil on Canvas 152 x 91cm 2013

Fairytales tell us that our one true love must be out there somewhere. This painting tells a story of the rejection of fleeting love. Behind the figure Queen Elizabeth I’s poem ‘When I Was Fair And Young’ talks of a woman who rejects her suitors as a young woman and repents of her pride as she grows older. I like to think of this figure as a strong independent woman who knows her own heart and though brightly coloured birds symbolic of her suitors try to attract her gaze the passion in her heart has yet to be kindled.  She waits in her castle of stone for the one who will be her prince charming.

When I Was Fair And Young

When I was fair and young, then favor graced me.

Of many was I sought their mistress for to be.

But I did scorn them all and answered them therefore:

Go, go, go, seek some other where; importune me no more.

How many weeping eyes I made to pine in woe,

How many sighing hearts I have not skill to show,

But I the prouder grew and still this spake therefore:

Go, go, go, seek some other where, importune me no more.

Then spake fair Venus’ son, that proud victorious boy,

Saying: You dainty dame, for that you be so coy,

I will so pluck your plumes as you shall say no more:

Go, go, go, seek some other where, importune me no more.

As soon as he had said, such change grew in my breast

That neither night nor day I could take any rest.

Wherefore I did repent that I had said before:

Go, go, go, seek some other where, importune me no more. 

Queen Elizabeth I

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