"Emily Flora Wright"
Kerry Wright, 1979
Oils on canvas
60cm x 50cm (24in x 20in)
This is not a happy portrait of my beloved mother. In reality, Mum had a bright, cheery laugh and a lovely sense of humour. She laughed often and had a wonderfully warm, giving personality. This portrait, however, captures my mother during a particularly sad period of her life, not long after the death of my father. They had been inseparable and my mother was in deep pain and mourning when I painted this portrait of her. And it wasn't just spiritual and emotional pain that she was experiencing. She was also physically unwell and was hospitalised for surgery at that time. Mum never fully recovered from Dad's death. She always became quite down during May each year, the month when Dad died. Come June, she seemed to brighten, but May was never a good month for her. It's not only Mum's sad expression and hunched demeanour that conveys the impression of loss and mourning here. It is extenuated by the sombre, cool palette of blue and grey, and by the solitary string of beads Mum is wearing around her neck, above that decidedly melancholy, drooping blue bow. I love my mother dearly and will always have this portrait hanging in my home, wherever I should live, for the remainder of my days.
