Re-berth (Storge – Love of Family)

£475.00

In January 1932, my grandmother, Sheila Hawkins, set sail from Perth, Australia, for Southampton, UK – a journey of over 18K miles and over at least 6 weeks. A year ago, my mother shared a photograph of her aboard that ship. I restored and reprinted it, framing copies for my mother and sister. In that image, my grandmother radiates youthful optimism, embarking on a new life in a very new world as an artist, wife, and mother.

While her London life was fraught with hardship, she faced it with remarkable courage. She defied the taboos of being a single mother in her forties, found solace and inspiration among bohemian friends across the UK and Europe, and established a successful career as an artist in a challenging, male-dominated environment.

My artwork, “Re-Berth,” (a play on the passenger ship term) depicts her as a stoic ancestral figure, costumed and bathed in the warm glow of a copper sun, departing the heat of Western Australia. The tropical pitcher flower she holds represents the unique beauty of her artistic talent and her “otherness” in pre-WWII London, a testament to her strength and enduring spirit.

My grandmother taught me how to see as an artist….an hour with her was worth a year in my secondary school art classes. She was a hyper-sensitive, eccentric and often scratchy soul (I am told I am very like her!)  but we all loved her profoundly and still miss her golden presence in our lives, 25 years after we lost her at a ripe old age of 93.

Framed in a hand-finished painted wood float frame.

*in-situ images are purely an indication of how the artwork might look*

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SKU: reberth original Category: Tags: , , , , ,

Additional information

Dimensions43 × 43 cm
State

Framed

Medium

Mixed media on board

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