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NEVERNEVERLAND
As a subject for painting, I choose particular places that through time gradually lose purpose and identity, becoming strange remnant lands that slip from the daily conscious; concluding in (in-) visible blemished absences in our surroundings. They are ‘there’ but ‘nowhere’, subsisting.

NeverNeverLand is the title given to a new body of work exploring children’s graves and memorials. The term NeverNeverLand comes loaded with connotations that perfectly encapsulate concepts surrounding children’s graves. One dictionary definition of Neverneverland is a utopian dreamland; this could refer to an idyllic afterlife one might expect and wish for dead children. In graveyards, this utopian spirit/next world is embodied physically in the shrines to childhood placed on graves; these consist of toys, cuddly bears, candles, wind chimes, cards and so on.

However, the most immediate reference is derived from Peter Pan stories, in the book by J.M Barrie. Subsequently, a whole visual culture has been developed as a result of film and television version. The juxtaposition of a child’s grave with commercial products is unsettling enough; this is reinforced by the use of children’s duvet covers as substitute canvas.

Moving closer to the ideas and origins of Peter Pan, NeverNeverLand is somewhere between heaven and earth. The Lost Boys are children who have fallen out of their pram and if they are not claimed in seven days they are sent to the Never Land forever and do not grow old. The Lost Boys are a simple metaphor for dead children, epitomising the idea that all children who die young will invariably remain a child regardless of time passing. Through the fixed and motionless images of painting I aim to represent the child’s changeless state.

In contrast to this changeless state, graves have a sense of transience and entropy. I present children’s graves using a shifting painted language where natural weathering and deterioration are mimicked through my use of paint. Each painting is devised in relation to a grave’s own characteristics i.e. toys, colours, composition etc. in a bid to individualise and bring a sense of personality portraying the child.

Finally, NeverNeverLand is also a reference to the Australian outback, sometimes called the Never-never, a land remote, uninhabitable, undesirable and void. This definition echoes the bleak perception of Gravesend, my hometown and inspiration.

The aims of the paintings are to capture an intimate appreciation of each place, expressing an otherworldly yet beautiful found strangeness, akin to forgotten memories. In each painting, I imbue each depicted place with purpose and celebrate its existence, an existence that might otherwise continue unnoticed.

Kent & Essex: Capriccio or Veduta

2008
Oil on Silk Cotton Mix
180x150cm

2008
Oil on Silk
180x120cm

2008
Oil and Acrylic on Cotton
180x120cm

2008
Oil and Acrylic on Silk
180x120cm

2008
Oil and Acrylic on Cotton
180x120cm

2008
Oil and Acrylic on Cotton
180x120cm

Welcome to Dreamland

2009
Oil and Golf Leaf on Silk
240x180cm