"Portrait of the Artist's Mother"
Kerry Wright, 1979
Oils on canvas
60cm x 50cm (24in x 20in)
This is not a happy portrait of my beloved mother, Emily Flora Wright nee Glover (1911-1991). 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 her portrait. 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.
