Made over a two-year period beginning in March 2020, Nightingales and Bombers takes its name from a 1942 BBC recording of nightingales singing in the Surrey countryside as 147 RAF bombers fly overhead. This was playing on the car radio during my journey home from seeing my mother for the final time, at what would also become the start of the nation’s first Covid lockdown.
The recording resonated so strongly with how I was feeling at that moment: reminiscing about our time together, rattling through memories in my head like a flip book, smiling, laughing and brushing away the tears as I headed home down the M4. Such mixed emotions and so much to process, compounded by the sense of it being an increasingly strange point in time for the whole country. I see this body of work as a celebration. It conjures up the happy hours she spent sitting in her overgrown garden (Ancient Bloom/Canopy/Welcome to the Jungle) watching the birds and squirrels and her beloved aeroplanes flying in and out of Heathrow—metaphors in her eyes for freedom and adventure (Flight Paths/White Metal Bird); the ballroom dancing in her kitchen to Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again (Don’t Know Where/Don’t Know When/Some Sunny Day); the stories, the laughter and the good times. These are the everyday memories you cherish and the things you mustn’t forget. |
Enquiries: Email Studio • sold Price List
Lousy Bunch / 75x61cm / oil on panel / 2022
Flight Paths / 110x137cm / acrylic on canvas / 2022 •
White Metal Bird / 43.5x19x10cm / bronze
edition 10 / 2022
edition 10 / 2022
Don't Know When / 58x88cm / oil on canvas / 2022
Jays / 90x110cm / oil on canvas / 2022 •
Some Sunny Day / 81x110cm / acrylic & oil on linen / 2022 •
Mother Figures / 40x80cm / oil on panel / 2022
Leavers' Party / 120x120cm / oil on canvas / 2021
Richmond Hill / 76x76cm / oil on panel / 2021
Idris / 44x28x9.5cm / wood / 2022 •
Welcome To The Jungle / 100x80cm / oil on canvas / 2021 •
Scotch Mist / 48x66cm / oil on canvas / 2021
Canopy / 40x30cm / oil on panel / 2021
Terracotta Things / 51x61cm / oil on canvas / 2021
Don't Know Where / 101x80cm / oil on canvas / 2021 •
Glove Letter / found rubber glove / 2020
Ghosts / 101x80cm / oil on canvas / 2021 •
Nincompoop / 33x16x12cm / ceramic / 2020
Hello, Sailor! / 80x60cm / oil on canvas / 2021 •
Portrait of a Young Girl / 75x61cm / oil on panel / 2021 •
Gemini / 42x21x10cm / bronze
edition 10 / 2022
edition 10 / 2022
Birds of a Feather / 75x100cm / oil on canvas / 2021 •
Chocolate Cake / 56x50cm / oil on canvas / 2020
Magpies / 170x140cm / acrylic & oil on canvas / 2020 •
Wooden Spoons / 126x96cm / oil on canvas / 2020
Mr. Diamond / 55x26x15cm / bronze
edition 10 / 2022
edition 10 / 2022
Useless Bunch / 88x59cm / acrylic & oil on canvas / 2020
Ancient Bloom / 54x44cm / acrylic & oil on canvas / 2020