DAY BOWMAN
Growing up in a holiday destination, small, seaside town
it is not surprising that much of my work has referenced the sea, the beach and
the littoral. In these paintings I find that the canvases echo the marks, lines
and shapes that we made in the wet, grey sand of my home town beach: thus the
canvas becomes the beach that acted as the canvas of my child-hood.
The Fortress
Series are a reflection on how Britain sees itself: a nation apart or part
of a global community? During last summer I visited a number of south coast
seaside towns and was struck by the shapes of fortress constructions from
castles to Martello Towers and the abandoned pill boxes of WW2. If they haven’t
been saved by English Heritage or converted into smart holiday homes they have
fallen into disrepair and ruin. I like the shapes and lines of such buildings
and have employed them in these paintings; for me they echo the small
sandcastles we patted out on the wet sands during the long summer holidays.
Along with scratched childhood messages to the gods, our
childhood castles in the sand were built to keep out the marauding tidal
waters; today, I find within these works a questioning on the notion of place, identity
and belonging.
