Celebrating Women

“Holding Lightly” (2023)

“Holding Lightly” is a painting for women, mothers, daughters.

As my mother and I grow older, our relationship evolves. It’s not an inversion exactly, more an adjustment. The tide changes. The sands shift. A recalculation as the route ahead becomes less clear. We retain our previous roles, but inhabit them in new ways. Waves of disorientation and nostalgia, concern and love. In the behaviour of the paint, I find a helpful metaphor as we both move forward on a path with no predetermined route. The paint responds to water or sand with equanimity, rising above or sinking below. She holds her destination lightly, allowing more than pushing, but leaving an indelible mark.

Holding Lightly will be at the Rona Painting Gallery in Oxford for a new exhibition throughout March, celebrating International Women’s Day on Wednesday 8 March and Mother’s Day on Sunday 19 March.

Celebrate women every day. Multi-layered, colourful, complicated women.