2022
Acrylic and Oil on Canvas
33 x 46 cm
13 x 18 Inches
When Nicholas Martyn died in
1595, Athelhampton was left to his four surviving daughters: Elizabeth, Jane, Frances
and Anne. The sisters inherited a quarter share of Athelhampton and these
paintings are dedicated to each one of them.
Depicting the red and white
stripe of the Martyn Coat of Arms, these paintings are influenced by shapes and
patterns found in the Henry VII door and the ceiling of the Library. This
quartet evokes the thought that the paintings could have hung in the bedrooms
of the four sisters all those years ago. Anne’s bedroom, for example, is
vividly imagined in Giles Keating’s novel The
Riddle of the Apes - despite the fact that Abstraction was not invented
until the twentieth century.
