Fifty years ago I painted this (an oil painting on hardboard) …… I am not a painter, it was something I did at school – now I work with found objects and in a sense this is a found object much like the slide transparencies that I have been working with! When my father died a few years ago the painting came back to me and has remained wrapped up in storage. It’s a strange feeling unlocking things from the past………
I am wondering where that girl who painted this has gone? I don’t remember painting it at all! It must have been from an illustration in a magazine or book! Why the man in a boat? It’s a mystery! So it’s about things lost and forgotten rather than memory – a kind of mourning for lost youth maybe!
Is this my next project? – I have taken the first step and attempted to clean it up – the background has yellowed considerably during the years it hung in my parent’s house (they were both smokers) – the photograph hides the yellowing which is interesting. I’m not sure where I’m going with it yet.
I have propped it up in the studio and will live with it there for a while and see what happens!
