A Conversation Across Generations
An exhibition exploring artistic inheritance through a conversation between a mother who never saw her daughter’s paintings and the daughter who spent forty years finding her own artistic voice.
A Conversation Across Generations explores artistic inheritance through the work of a mother and daughter whose lives as painters never overlapped. I grew up surrounded by my mother’s art and knew her deeply as an artist, but I did not begin painting until years after she was gone. She therefore never saw the work I would eventually make.
My mother was an abstract expressionist painter whose work often told stories of people, community and social experience. This exhibition brings selected works by my mother into conversation with my own contemporary acrylic and mixed-media paintings. Rather than presenting a direct stylistic comparison, the exhibition looks for echoes across generations — in colour, gesture, storytelling, emotion and the impulse to make meaning through paint.
It is both an exploration of artistic inheritance and a conversation that could never take place during her lifetime.
A Sky Made of Flowers
Acrylic and mixed media on canvas
16 x 24 in.
A lyrical abstract floral inspired by the colour, movement and fleeting beauty of a garden. Layers of violet, magenta and soft turquoise shift between suggestion and abstraction, allowing the image to remain open to memory and imagination.
No Apologies
Acrylic and mixed media on canvas
18 × 12in.
A bold, expressive floral that embraces colour gesture and spontaneity. Layers of violet, pink and earthy tones move between abstraction and suggestion, celebrating the freedom of painting without restraint - and without apology.
Between Tides
Acrylic and mixed media on canvas
16 × 24in.
Between Tides explores the quiet space where memory and landscape meet. The figure is less a portrait than a presence, emerging and dissolving into sea, sky, and light. Built with layered textures and restrained colour, the painting invites viewers to bring their own stories to the shoreline..
Hidden Language
Acrylic, mixed media and collage on canvas
24 × 16in.
Hidden Language explores the tension between what is revealed and what remains obscured. Circular forms, translucent whites and a vertical red gesture emerge from a dark surrounding field, suggesting fragments of thought, memory and meaning just beyond reach. The work invites a slower kind of looking, where interpretation remains open and personal.
Where the Dark Blooms
Acrylic, mixed media and collage on canvas
24 × 24 in.
Where the Dark Blooms explores the contrast between darkness and emergence. Violet, lavender and pale floral forms rise from a deep surrounding field, creating a sense of light pushing through shadow. The painting balances restraint and exuberance, allowing colour and gesture to carry the emotional weight of the work.