In My Mother’s Footsteps
EXHIBITION – IN MY MOTHER’S FOOTSTEPS – The Engine Room, Exchange Gallery, Princes Street, Penzance.
27 May – 14 July 2017.
My Mum, Elspeth, was born in 1926 on Vancover Island, Canada where she lived until the family moved to the Cornwall in 1933. Recently I found an envelope of negatives, which I had developed, the photographs showed the early days of the life on a smallholding the family owned at the foothill of Tzouhalem mountain and the childhood idle of Elspeth and her brother, Grenville.
Elspeth is now 90, she has dementia, these photographs are memories of a precious and distant time that she remembers with amazing clarity. They prompt conversations, laughter and tears which I have been recording, and every time we look at these together, another recollection like names of the dogs, people and their significance in Elspeth’s early childhood days.
These photographs have also given me a rich source of inspiration for a series of paintings, these are my imaginings of the colour and world where Mum lived. They are between reality and a dream place, they are the past which I am trying to rekindle so Mum can remember.
“Memories are the loveliest thing, they last from day to day.
They can’t get lost, they don’t wear out, and can’t be given away” Anonymous
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- Aunty Gwens Little Fish, 61 x 76 cms, acrylic on canvas
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- Waiting, 80 x 80 cms, acrylic on canvas
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- Skating on the Swamp, 70 x 90 cms, acrylic on canvas
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- Me & My Shadow – 61 x 76 cms, acrylic on canvas
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- Lost in the Woods, acrylic on canvas, 61 x 76cm
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- In A Blue Cloud, 40 x 40 cms, acrylic on board
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- Beach Pyjamas, acrylic on canvas
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- Washing Up – Salt Spring Island, oil on board, 37 x 37
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- Sunday Best, 37 x 37 cms
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- Skating on the Swamp, SOLD
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- Dogwood, 37 x 37 SOLD
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- Picnic at Saltspring Island, 37 x 37 cms
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- Sledging with Nanny the Goat, 37 x 37 cms
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- Spring Flowers, 37 x 37 cms
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- Grandma & Marble, 37 x 37 cms
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- Looking For Blue Bear, 37 x 37 cms
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- Grandma and Friends,SOLD