Left: Sally Anderson Deegan Drive Water Vessel 2020 acrylic on canvas 150 x 150 cm
Right: Guy Maestri Dried Hydrangeas for Sally 2020 oil on linen 40 x 45 cm

Blue Island, Water Vessel pairs two paintings of hydrangeas. The first is a still life by Guy Maestri which depicts a tin of dried hydrangeas (the same tin of hydrangeas he has been painting for the duration of our relationship). The second is a panel of colour, mixed from memory, which represents the particular colour I associate with hydrangeas.

This small exhibit is an example of the project which I proposed to curate at BSA Project Space but due to Covid-19 has been postponed to 2021. I proposed to invite 6 painters, including myself, to paint a 150 x 150 cm panel of colour, mixed from memory, which they associate with their experience of hydrangeas. The work investigates the interplay of colour and memory in relation to individual experience. I, as well as various other painters, have been depicting hydrangeas in my work for some time. For me, they represent a particular place and time I am constantly recalling, revisiting, remembering and trying to forget.