‘The Memory of Place’

‘The Memory of Place’ is a very personal collection of new paintings in response to the feelings of home and the emotion of saying goodbye to a childhood home.

Although I moved out of my family home at the age of 23 when I got married, my parents have lived in the same house for over 50 years. It’s the only home they have ever really known together, but now it’s too big for them to manage and the decision has been made to move. A lifetime of memories, old toys, and lost things finally found have made us laugh and cry together, and many things will have to be let go. Including the garden.

The garden. A typical London garden. Not big, overlooked by towering trees, often difficult to manage but a place of joy. Saying goodbye to the garden is going to be difficult, especially for my dad. Even my visit last weekend included a certain amount of digging out of precious roses. Roses are not always easy to transplant but he just can’t leave them. As we finished I was overwhelmed by the high number of other potted up favourites and cuttings, all carefully labelled and ready to go. A botanical archive in themselves. Once in flower, these plants will be recorded and preserved in watercolour forming, ‘The Memory of Place’ Collection.

The quiet, shared ritual of careful transplanting brought back many memories of a childhood me constantly ‘helping’ my dad in the garden. My small hands trying to copy the well practised exercise of planting seeds and taking cuttings not always successfully. And here we were again. The memory of place can be overwhelming when we ourselves are deeply rooted. Almost as deeply rooted as the roses.