Coronation Day, oil on linen, 48×44 inches, 1998-9.
“After having seen so many coronations of the virgin type paintings in my European studies, I thought it was a nice idea to paint a painting where everyone is crowned, a divine concept indeed. This was painted just after my first son was born. I work from my imagination but paint characters sometimes based on reality. The bald figure is my son’s godfather, and the woman on the pillow a from my head version of my pretty lady Johanna, and another is sort of my buddy James’ brother. When creating a painting, compositionally, I like playing with intertwined figures as they are a challenge and a pleasure to do.
One of my current goals is to compose a larger coronation day painting. It will be called ‘Mass Coronation” – MA, June 2020