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ARTIST'S STATEMENT For my first London series I ’ve chosen two very dramatic settings – half a world apart but with many similiarities. Santorini, Greece, and Capes Bridgewater and Nelson on the southern coast of Victoria, Australia – where I have lived and painted for the past 25 years. It seems appropriate to add the recent location paintings from Cornwall – the enormous monolithic rock formations at Bedruthen Steps and along the Lizard Peninsular sent shock waves through my creative senses. Santorini with it’s volcanic history has intrigued me for years now – so different in terrain from what one imagines to be the ideal tourist destination of white sandy beaches etc. Most people are attracted to Santorini for it’s pristine architecture – the image of the famous blue domed church and bell tower at Firostefani is irresistible. While in Santorini recently I noticed countless paintings of the architectural features but not one of the sea and volcanic rocks. Of course volcanic rocks are my specialty – after having lived on the edge of an extinct volcano for so long. So what is so exciting about basalt rocks for me? Firstly, it was simply a matter of ‘contrast’ – black being the perfect contrast to the aqua sea of the southern ocean – but after a while I started to notice distinctively ‘African’ figurative shapes emerging in the spontaneous mark-making in the rocks – at first I was delighted but puzzled by this metamorphosis that was starting to dominate my work. ‘Red’ was the next colour introduced – this led the metamorphosis into deeper conceptual realms into issues revolving around ‘war’ and ‘human rights’. In 1998 I started to sponsor a child, Ian Guchuhi, in Kenya through CCF (Christian Childens Fund) - I was so impressed by the work of this organization that I decided to donate a percentage of my income from art sales (up to 25%) to aid their educational programmes in Africa – our first major donation bought computers and educational equipment for the Othaya family helper project, enabling a whole school access to an otherwise unheard of technology. We have been steadily donating since to many educational projects in Africa. 20% of the proceeds from this exhibition will go to World Vision to aid the desperate situation in Darfur. Judy Antill |