Emulsion, chalk pens, sunburnt plastic and rusted nails on framed canvas

23x28xcm

PRIVATE COLLECTION

Here we see a three leaved peony in Aberlour whisky… but what do we think of when we think of flowers? Decoration, romance, innocence – but they can also be medicine and poison, givers of life and death in our ecosystem. We give them as gifts to celebrate and commiserate, eat them in restaurants, throw them at weddings and study them in art and science.

As a painter, my challenge here is to take something that on the surface is pretty and innocuous and pull it apart to reveal its weirdness – for it is here we find the truth. In art we can remind ourselves that weirdness isn’t bad, it is the definition of life itself.

Duke Mitchell