The paintings all deal with loss, first of my mother, Patricia Anne Cole in 2016 and then my father, Barry John Cole, in 2017, albeit in slightly differing ways. My parents were central to my life and probably the single most important factor in me becoming the person who I am today. For a long time afterwards, and even now to be honest, finding the words to express the feelings after they died felt next to impossible. Some of the paintings were fundamentally cathartic, an attempt at trying to capture and work through the sense of unreality I felt and still feel, the sense of something fundamental gone from my life and the world not being the same as it was before, but the paintings are also meant to function as a monument and memorial for my parents. There is the idea that art lives on long after we're gone, and that's what I wanted to do - create a legacy for them, in the only way I know how, so that some of who they were, what they did and what they meant to me will live on and never be forgotten.
“Your Ghost”
“In A Silent Place”
“In the Company of Ghosts”
“A Block of Muted Sensation”
“For Everything That Was Lost”
“Between the Tides”
“Last Call”
“A Mourning Air”
