BIBLICAL DOMESTIC (2021-2024)

Where lightly depressed Biblical and Historical women escape Master Paintings, only to become trapped in my household chores.

Read and see more about this series in the following publications: “Depictions of Motherhood: Interview with Katherine October Matthews” (Juno Magazine), “Q & A with Sarah Lightman”, (Jewish Women’s Archive, Rachael Davis), “Biblical Domestic” (Milk Art Journal ed. Katherine October Matthews), “Biblical Domestic” (MAI: Feminism and Visual Culture) “Re-storying” and Re-drawing Biblical Women through Graphic Narratives” (Alec Weiker, Fresh Ideas from HBI), “Jewish Maternal Journal” (Laura Godfrey-Isaacs, Jewthink) and “Jewish Women in Comics” (Alex Fitch, Panel Borders).

Paintings from the series have been exhibited at “ Windows and Thresholds” (Bell House Artists’ Open House 2023), “Women Celebrating Surrealism” (Islington Arts Factory 2022), Wells Art Contemporary (2022), and Society of British Artists (2022).

In 2022 a limited edition of prints of this series was sold in aid of The Trussel Trust and in 2023 a number of prints, and an original, was sold for ArtForPeaceintheMiddleEast .

Mary and her Cat (2024)

Mary and her Cat (2024)

455 mm x 610 mm

Watercolour on Paper

Mary's mostly joyful summer of childcare also triggered her own recollections of the parenting she received, reminding her of the heaviness she carries. Sometimes stroking her neighbour's purring cat was easier.



Bathsheba’s Bath (2021-2024)

Bathsheba’s Paths Untaken (2024)

610mm x 455 mm

Watercolour on Paper

Even the King’s sexy plaything cannot escape the ravages of time, the desperation of endless household tasks and the painful agonies of “what ifs”.

Drawing Bathsheba’s Bath (2021)

420x 297 mm

It looks like Bathsheba’s bath in my dirty dishes is nearly ready. Tip of the Fairy Liquid to Rembrandt.

(In Private Collection)

Salome (2022-3)

Salome, The Improv Thrifter (2023)

110x 140cm

Oil on Canvas

“Post Brexit, John was off the menu so Salome was forced to experiment with cheaper, local ingredients.”

John for Dinner (2022)

297 x 420 mm

Watercolour on Paper

Salome, unquestionably North West London's hostess with the mostess, was eager to impress her fancy new neighbours, so she spent an entire day cooking John the Baptist. How was she to know they were vegetarian? Please note it is not absolutely necessary to have a double oven for this recipe, but it does help.

Charlie for Dinner (2023)

Charcoal on Paper

121.9cmx 155.2cm

Bathsheba’s Wading (2021-2023)

Woman Wading in a Stream of Stir Fry {Bathsheba} (2021)

297 x 420 mm

Watercolour on Paper

No sooner does she escape Rembrandt’s murky waters, Bathsheba finds herself stuck in puddles of last night’s stir fry as someone, once again, forgot to switch on the dishwasher.

Wading in Last night’s Dirty Dishes (2023)

121.9cmx 155.2cm

Charcoal on Paper

Rest of Biblical Domestic Series

Madonna of the Soft Play - A Prayer for the Lost and Found (2022)

297 x 420 mm

Watercolour on Paper

Mary wonders if she needs to dig deep into the ball pit for Jesus's missing nappy, or should she leave it as a surprise lucky dip for the next visitor? More pressingly, where did he pick up those cherries he was enjoying so much, and are they even edible

Mary’s Torments of the Passion (NW3) (2022)

297 x 420 mm

Watercolour on Paper

Mary wonders if she could just take up residence in this delightful little French clothing boutique, in the quaint streets of Hampstead? How she longs for a world of perfectly curated, exquisitely folded baby clothes. How she wishes she didn't have to return home to a messy house, a sticky kitchen floor, and an overwhelming pile of laundry to put away.

Just Ten Minutes Peace (2022)

297 x 420 mm

Watercolour on Paper

Susanna begs her family for ten minutes, just ten minutes, of uninterrupted solitude, so she can have her bath in peace and tranquility.

Novice School Rep. for Year 3 (2022)

297 x 420 mm

Watercolour on Paper

This Lady in Red had been so excited about being chosen to be a School Rep. that she arrived two hours early for the meeting at Starbucks, on St. John's Wood High Street. She was, perhaps, just a little over-dressed for the occasion but she had always found it tricky to calibrate the very best way to make exactly the right impression to the other mums at the school.

The Uniform List Blues and Greys. (2022)

297x 420mm

Watercolour on Paper

As September approaches she is struck by a deep overwhelming malaise as she opens the dreaded email from the school secretary with the full list of uniform requirements for the upcoming academic year. And then, before she knows it, term is about to start, and she realises that everywhere is sold out of knee high socks in the right size.

Lady Cockburn, and her Three Sons, Count the Seconds until Their Cleaner and Nanny Arrive (2022)

297 x 420 mm

Watercolour on Paper

She is beyond words at this point.

Dressing Eve Again (2021)

297 x 420 mm

Watercolour on Paper

Eve is borrowed from a Jacob Jordaens painting of “Adam and Eve” (1649). Red Pyjama bottoms- Artist’s Own.

Fridge Frustrations. (2022)

297 x 420 mm

Watercolour on Paper

Judith can’t find anywhere in the fridge for her organic and fresh cut of Holofernes. Once again, her eyes were bigger than her storage space. When will she learn not to lose her head over all those delicious special offers?

Dressing Eve During a Pandemic (2021)

297 x 420 mm

Watercolour on Paper

Here is Eve from a painting by Titian entitled “The Fall of Man” (1550), during my own fall as mother/artist/homeschooler.

Dumfries House Artist Residency (2023)

Supermarket Woes (2023)

420x 297 mm

“She didn’t know why she had ended up shopping in Sainsbury’s, she’d always preferred Aldi. The food just tasted so much fresher”

I don’t have the name of the painting or artist but I loved the very banal and undervalued act of grocery shopping that was celebrated with a big gold frame in this grand house.

Leah’s Journey (The Unedited Version) Arrival at Auchinleck (2023)

420 x 297 mm

“It was drizzling... The children were over-tired, the sheep kept escaping on to the track, Jacob kept twerking Rachel, who btw was wearing God -Knows-What & it was then Leah remembered.. she had totally forgotten to preorder taxi.”

Before you take part on the RDS residency you are told to pre-order taxi from Auchinleck station. I borrowed Jacopo Bassano’s ‘The Journey Of Jacob’ (1561) and told the story from the female protagonist’s perspective.

Holy Spam (2023)

297 x 420 mm

“You’ve won a $1000 Walmart Giftcard”.

Mary was focussed on her book, in deep concentration. Then Angel Gabriel come barging in, talking nonsense, selling her something she doesn't want, telling her she won something she doesn't need. And there, just like that, her concentration and train of thought has gone.

Unbeauty Hall (2023)

297 x 420 mm

"The displays filled her with optimism but the mirrors pierced her heart".

I chose this portrait as she wasn't classically beautifully, with her overlarge features, receding hair and sad eyes. She desperately wanted to be other than she was, she almost believed the snake oil salespeople and their impossible promises.

 

Immaculate Unease (2023)

297 x 420 mm

PRINCES FOUNDATION, DUMFRIES HOUSE COLLECTION

“Mary found the playground a trial. She encouraged Jesus to be brave. Even as she felt so desperately anxious and afraid".

I love a sad Mary painting. They make me feel there is a glimmer of real parenting, not idealised motherhood, on the canvas. The fear for our children, the fear in ourselves, our own childhood and the parenting we received seeping out through the paint.

Lounging Woman (2021)

My weekends are spent shuttling my son back and forth to various sporting activities. As he grows stronger and more agile, I remember my younger self who never got these opportunities and would have loved them. Forty years years later, I feel that I expand and spread like these luscious, lounging, slightly leaden, women from art history.

Better (2021)

420x 297 mm

Watercolour on Paper

I bring you to your classes on time, grasping your water bottle. I think to myself, it is too late for me to get any better. I middle-age spread like “Venus in a Landscape” by Jacopo Palma il vecchio, in Kentish Town West.

Soft Landing (2021)

420x 297 mm

Watercolour on Paper

I used to do handstands in my parent’s house, and cartwheels in the garden, Now I am a prelude to ageing, unloved by Titian.

Display (2021)

420x 297 mm

Watercolour on Paper

I watch you with pride and just a touch of sadness for myself. My ageing body in contrast to your strength and vigour, a pre-menopausal Danae.

Domestic Warfare (2021)

My watercolours bring the battlefields of Paulo Uccello's "Battle of San Romano" into my untidy kitchen, and feature my daily skirmishes with dirty laundry and the overflowing recycling bin, as I fight desperately for the space and time to produce my art and writings.

Domestic War Games (2021)

420x 297 mm

Watercolour on Paper

My Daily War of Attrition (2021)

420x 297 mm

Watercolour on Paper

There are the many multicoloured toy cars, scattered across every floor surface. Each car is known and cared for by my son - his considered love bestows these toys with a right to exist anywhere in the home. How can l be furious with my son’s right to space, autonomy and ambition? Is my fury really, at its hot aching centre, an understanding that for so many years, as I grew up, I didn’t believe in my own right to space, autonomy and ambition?