Myrrha

The Greek myth of Myrrha tells how her father, King Theias offended Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, with his worship of another god. Aphrodite punished him by making his daughter fall in love with him and come to his bed in the dark of night when he was drunk.

When Myrrha returned to her senses she was distraught with shame at what she had done and ran to the woods pleading with the gods to let her die. She was turned into a Weeping Myrrh tree. After nine months she gave birth from the tree to Adonis, the world’s most beautiful man. The resin tears that bleed from the Myrrh tree are said to be sacred and purifying.

The painting began as 6 A4 drawings of trees and 6 A4 drawings of figures all drawn from life. I arranged them into a composition and glued them down onto heavy duty Kraft paper. These 12 pieces of paper are still visible within the painting and can be seen in the detail photos above.

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My earliest influence was my uncle, who was a painter. His house was full of dark, mysterious images, like the blue shoe in a dark forest and the Apollo Lunar module depicted with foil chewing gum wrappers. My father took me to the main London galleries, but Uncle Michael's paintings were a daily influence that stayed with me.