I think beloved people and objects take on a special aura in a painting. This can remain even if the original focus of our affection is lost to us by time, distance, disintegration or even death. A jug, a toy, a shawl may all unlock memories. A small child, a young woman at her first May Ball, a grandmother sitting in firelight – time can stand still if these moments are captured for the future.
This was highlighted most poignantly for me when I lost my parents yet still had my portrait of my mother. The painting is called Memento Amore. This was a play on words - choosing to ‘remember love’ rather than Memento mori or "Remember that you are mortal’- a theme of one genre of art.
In the painting one of my mother’s work worn hands has an embedded wedding ring, while her arthritic finger points stiffly to the handles of my parents’ teacups which cross over in a lovers’ knot. The vase in the painting still exists and my own hands begin to show similar signs of aging but the strong spirited person who wanted to be painted ‘not smiling – but dignified like the pictures in art galleries’ has gone.
I treasure this painting and want to paint pictures for others that will be equally meaningful for them. Chris
