I took my inspiration from a quote from J. Millais, whose painting 'Ophelia' we are basing our works on. Millais wrote to Thomas Combe in March 1852: 'Today I have purchased a really splendid lady's ancient dress - all flowered over in silver embroidery - and I am going to paint it for "Ophelia". You may imagine it is something rather good when I tell you it cost me, old and dirty as it is, four pounds' (J.G. Millais I, p.162).
So, with the image of 'a really splendid lady's ancient dress' in mind I set to work in January of this year to create a life sized 'splendid dress'; not dirty in the least, but strewn with many of the blossoms from Shakespeare's account of his doomed heroine's flowery demise. Only after finishing it did I realise there was not even a hint of the tragic about my 'dress', it's just a creation typifying what I always strive for: beauty, intense attention to detail and the enjoyment of stretching my technical skills to achieve something completely new. I hope you enjoy the exhibition!
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| Another section of the life sized piece…... |
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