Monday 31 May 2010

Peggy - Your Life in Pictures

My dear mother, Peggy died on Friday, aged 92. She has been a great source of inspiration for my paintings over the years and I have no doubt that she will be again. From appearing in human form, albeat in saucey postcard style in ' Wish You Were Here', through two paintings were she was sympbolised as Soo (of Sooty fame), to being a corn dolly in my latest work ' Snow Angels and No Angels '. As Soo, Peggy appeared in a painting entitled ' Duet ' alongside my brother Richard as Sooty and my father, Arthur as Sweep, in a picture about moving to a new life in Skipton, after living all her life in Hull.
In the second painting, made when Peggy was 80 and I feared she would soon die, was based on the mexican 'Day of the Dead' tradition and took the form of an Offrenda (the title of the painting) or altar. Anyway, Peggy didn't die, so I always tactfully referred to it as her birthday painting in her presence. In my latest painting, Peggy appears as a corn dolly, the symbol of fertility and motherhood - a fitting tribute to a lady who devoted herself to her family, as wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.

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