… drawn to the finesse of Flemish artists such as Van Eyck, Vermeer and Bosch where the imagery and the surface of the painting work together to create a fantastic illusion of reality.

Artist statement

In recent years I have been intrigued by old family photographs — who were the people in the pictures and where were they taken and when. It sparked an idea to explore the countries of my parents' birth as source material for an exhibition.

This body of work is inspired by those photographs and the stories behind them.

My father grew up in Belgium and travelled to Australia in the early sixties where he met my mother and decided to make this country his home. My mother was born in Alexandria, Egypt of Lebanese and Maltese descent, her family migrated to Australia in 1950.

When I was six we travelled to Belgium to meet my father's family and this was my first introduction to the painting of fifteenth century Flemish artists Hubert and Jan van Eyck. I saw The Ghent Altarpiece, a large oak triptych with folding doors typical of work in the northern gothic style of that era. The colours and format of the piece have stayed in the back of my mind and were reinforced when I became familiar with other works by Jan van Eyck, notably The Arnolfini Betrothal. I have also been drawn to the work of other Belgian artists such as René Magritte and Hergé (of Tintin fame) and Flemish artist Hieronymous Bosch.

The Arnolfini's in the Garden of Earthly Delights

The Arnolfini's in the Garden of Earthly Deligths places two well known Flemish paintings together to form a new sequence of events with old and new characters and props. Using Bosch's Garden as a direct source of inspiration for my own images and The Arnolifini Betrothal which I am revisiting.

The shape of the works are intended to echo the mirror in the original Arnolfini portrait. Painted using oil on wood in a manner that is reminiscent of these early Flemish works, I hope to convey some of the richness of colour and intensity of the originals.