Inspired by a slide taken by my Grandfather in the 1950s the painting shows my father and Grandmother looking at the Golden Gate Bridge. The figures are looking, they are having an experience, immediate and felt, staring at the perpetual newness of human endeavour and the natural world in which it sits. Human nature is to build and in this instance what has been built is awe inspiring. 

What happened between my eye and hand was a desire to capture a family resemblance, the cut of the clothes, their materiality, the construction and geometry of the bridge, the way it sits within the sky. Then as the scene was nearing completion the concrete barrier separating them from the sight became to constraining and the landscape took over, rearing up and birthing a smaller faceless boy in yellow. He would be my Grandmother’s great grandson, though she can’t see his face yet. It is the result of how studying a scene through painting opens up surreal opportunities as the mind resists pure description and tries to create.

Golden Gate

2023

oil on canvas

40 x 60cm