Return Of A Hero

The Morris is back. It’s been away at the garage having the brakes and steering improved. I’m so glad it’s been returned for the reopening of Ted Coney’s Family Portraits as it is usually one of the stars of the show. It certainly looks very smart with it’s new/old Camping Club badge from the 1950s.

The gallery reopens on 26^th April by the way, with bookings taken from the 18^th. I can only take six visitors at a time so maybe you had better get organised. You can book online, by Email or phone.

Which reminds me, I must start getting all the rooms ready, as having the Morris back on site, is only the beginning of all the jobs I need to do.

Bicycle Thieves

I like to keep thinking about the subject of my next painting, while working on the current one. Although I’d already thought of a title – ‘War Babes’, the story has now moved on, and I’m thinking of changing it.
Originally, I was going to depict three female victims of the second world war, my mother and two cousins, who were all pregnant and had to get married because of the conventions at the time.
I wanted to contrast them with three newer, female family members who aren’t married and see no need to be, but have children, to show how things have changed.
I then saw a film entitled ‘Bicycle Thieves’, set in Italy in 1948 which gave my idea a further twist.
As well as telling the story of an actual bicycle been stolen and its aftermath, the film is also trying to get across how a whole nation’s lives have been taken away, by the events of the war.
I feel my six relatives, by being not married, but having children, may, in their different ways have had their lives stolen, too. Much more so, than their male partners.
And the theft of a bicycle in my painting? Well my 1940s bicycle has been stolen , but luckily I managed to get it back.