Changes in the social values and the behaviour of generations of Sydney families are portrayed in a challenging series of narrative paintings. Artist Greg Cliffe combines memories from different times, places and families to examine the human traits of greed, envy, betrayal and devotion. Cliffe drew inspiration for his paintings from the many collected anecdotes, candid photographs and popular sayings of family, friends and acquaintances. “I have accentuated the vast chasms of sensibility that exist between different times, classes and even blood relatives. The paintings do not provide answers but leave the audience with work to do about their emotional content.” Reference to accumulated memory is so important to me because I go back three generations over 150 years. With my grandfather born in 1860, my father in 1904 and me in 1956, the three of us span two industrial revolutions.