Hovering Between

The series of portraits I produced last year have profound personal meaning for me. They were a poignant   reflection upon the transience of human life. As I developed photos of my ancestors in the dark room from old family negatives, the images resonated with me. Although the subjects were dead in reality, they breathed some kind of life afresh through the photographs. I began to paint the same image many times. Each painting assumed a different persona as I did. I thought of it in terms of "resurrecting"; attributing to this being a new lease of life in art world or speculating upon what her character could have been. I see her as hovering between a state of life and death.

I am glad that they have a good home now with Frank, a lovely man who bought them, and who lets me visit the paintings and him whenever I like.

Miguel Barcelo

Miguel Barcelo is one of my favourite contemporary artists. His paintings are full of life, feeling, vitality and expression. He feeds an energy and passion into the making of his paintings which then becomes so transparent in the viewing of them. The viewing experience standing before his paintings is always a generous one; uplifting, thought-provoking and reflective as it is. His work installed in Church spaces, seems to follow in the gothic tradition of Antonio Gaudi.

I first experienced his paintings first-hand in a retrospective held in the Caixa Forum, Madrid in 2010. The surface is thickly encrusted with paint and speaks of the crude process by which the paint in applied. He seems to cut to the heart, expressing emotion powerfully. Not delicate or fearful in his mark-making, he boldly and forcefully, speaks visually with such conviction. He reminds me that in order to convict my audience, I must first be convicted of what I am doing myself. Painting must speak of truth and belief.