PAST LIVES (2026)

ACRYLIC ON canvas, 120cm BY 120CM, tray framed

This work took its name from the fact it had many incarnations before settling on the final form. The first image I painted on the background reminded me of my father. As I worked further into the image, it started to look like Jeffrey Epstein - so I painted over that and arrived at a new face with one eye open and one eye shut. I re-worked the background heavily in white so the face basically disappeared. When I painted a new face without intending it, the previous face reemerged! I applied different coloured washes to the four quadrants of the background. the lower half was bathed in a blue wash, which made it look like the person was drowning. I hung that work for a while but kept coming back to it sensing it needed something else. I again reworked the background and face, applying tape so I was able to reveal aspects of its past life. The FINAL IMAGE is haunting, both looking to the heavens and accepting what is, evoking both fear and contentment contemporaneously.