Much of this area my work deals with how our past , our childhood memories have moulded our present, our sense of who we are. It is a very personal journey, unashamedly autobiographical, a ‘self-portrait’ if you will.

In trying to make sense of the past, we rely on our memories, but these can be notoriously unreliable, are often selective and easily influenced by external factors. Old family photographs play a central role in this, something that we that we all have. But how quickly do loved ones in one generation later become forgotten, unknown faces?  With the distance of time our memories of events can become rather blurred and by looking at these old photograhs, they can create a “false” memory in our minds by the forcefulness of the photographic image before us. 

These old photographs from the family albums, (or more often than not boxes of loose photographs), and also on occasion ‘found’ images are the starting point of these paintings. I aim to remove the specific context in which the photographs were taken with their personal narrative, by using plain, neutral backgrounds.  In this way I hope to make the paintings relevant to all, enabling the viewer to concentrate on the emotional impact of the figures and the memories they may suggest for them personally. 

Black and white elements (most of the photographic sources are in black and white) are mixed with coloured elements which are my memories of colours I remember.