More paintings using appropriated images from 19th and 20th century photographs. I have titled them ‘Icon’ because their subjects are iconic: mid-century appliances, high-end snooty furniture, breeze blocks, the moon, rare photography. Iconic women, children, clothes, hairdos, attitudes.
The paintings comment on childhood, vulnerability, adornment, watching, being watched
They are also modeled on religious icons. After my father’s death in April this year, I found myself in Greek church a lot. Not a religious person, I didn’t engage with the rituals. Instead, I spent most of the time staring at the icons which covered almost every inch of the walls of the church.
Garish but somehow comforting, what made these icons beautiful and peaceful? Gold and earth colours, symbols of this and that. So that’s what I used. And the royal blue of the priest’s robes. I substituted circles for the arch shapes which are usual. The circle is complete in itself; a perfect shape. It is a lense, an insight, a viewer, a focus, a portal.
These five works will be shown in a group exhibition:
Scavengers: 12 artists, (curated by Polly Hollyoak, Andrea Hughes and Olga Tsara), Alternating Current ArtSpace, 248 High Street, Windsor, 6-21 December 2019
