WITHIN THIS EARTH

This large oil on board painting was informed by a field adjoining my studio situated in the post-mining hinterland of west Cornwall. I worked tirelessly on the painting in the hope of finishing it for inclusion in my major forth-coming solo show “Srebrenica - Paintings from the Grave” to be held in the Yehudi Menuhin Space, The European Parliament Building, Brussels in September, 2006. The fact the painting was based on a Cornish landscape rather then on a Bosnian landscape was a visual metaphor I liked: no landscape anywhere is devoid of historic trauma. I was unable to finish the painting on time and it wasn't until my Brussels show came to the Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery in January 2008 that I was finally able to include and exhibit it. Sadly the painting was badly damaged in storage some time later. However, I managed to resurrect something of the spirit of the painting by having a full size digitalised image of it printed on a tapestry like blanket made. This was hung on a purpose built structure and placed beneath the north transept window of Hereford Cathedral as part of my solo exhibition “Places of Mourning in the Western World” held in Hereford Cathedral in 2022.