Summer 2023 Exhibition

Childhood Memories at Yore Mill Craft Shop and Gallery For August I presented the work I had previously shown at The Bank in North Shields plus some other paintings that I had been developing on the same idea. I was able to clear the studio out and hand the large images that I had previously shown, this time I applied them to wooden stretchers so they would hang against an MDF screen we put up to mask my shelves.

This painting came about due to a memory of the shoes we all wore in the 60's and 70's. My Mum was a shoe fitter for Clarks and StartRite so it was a point of pride that we were all kitted out correctly at the start of the school year. Old family photographs show myself and my sisters all in these, either red or blue. My friend recently had to help an elderly relative clear out a house and a pair of these were found, she gave them to me because she knew I would do something with them. So I had painted them as still life. I like the off centre positioning of the shoes as I was trying to depict a feeling of discomfort and self concsiousness that I felt as a child. The marble just balances the composition out and refers to a particular event when I fought (and won) physically with a boy in the school playground to regain my marbles when I thought he had won unfairly. The shoes kind of represent my self at that stage of my life and are a stand in for a self portrait I suppose. The little shoes painting was just quickly painted in oils on board. I have been enjoying working with oil paint again and find it more satisfying that acrylics. I like that the paint stays open for longer and can be blended for longer.

This painting I titled StartemRite. It depicts a pair of vintage childrens shoes with their original box. Again representing the self as a child. I painted this as a straight still life but from a dark ground so the overall impression is of objects emerging from a dark place. In the background is visible a leather belt which is partially obscured by the shadows. I hope to represent some of the tension that existed in my childhood of the constant threat of physical punishment whilst at the same time keeping up the appearances of a happy and prosperous family life.

This painting, I called Holy Grail, depicts (again using still life observation) a vintage cut glass cookie jar. It belonged to my paternal grandfather who was very dear to us as children. The cookie jar represents himself. We would be allowed to have a chocolate biscuit at Christmas from the cookie jar. I can't look at the actual jar without seeing my sisters hands going into the jar first to retrieve a cookie, the anxiety is still real today! I must admit it was a challenge to paint. I didn't use any tracing methods or projection but it is mostly drawn by just using the brush. I limited the palette and really painted more or less monochromatically just trying to depict shadows and highlights. Eventually the marks I was making with the brush came together in a kind of approximation of the light glinting off the cut glass surface and the chocolatey darkness distorted within. The biscuit that I could get that was the closest were Foxs full chocolate shortbreads. I had good feedback from the public about the exhibition as I also showed alongside the pictures some vintage artefacts such as the shoes, Pelham Puppets, a Spacehopper, a tin robot toy and some vintage magazines. The children were allowed to play with the puppets and toys. We had some interesting discussions about how childrens toys, the gendering of toys i.e what was acceptable to play with being a boy or a girl. With adults the shoes were a good starting point for discussion as most Gen X visitors remembered wearing the sandals in some way when they were young. There was general concensus that they were a good leveller in that we had no choice and in one way, it made us all the same in the playground