This painting titled “Unwatched Hour’ was made in response to Sussex Contemporary’s open call, “Shelter”.

I wanted to make a piece of work around the idea of sheltering our children from growing up too fast, or from themselves rather and saying yes to and growing up in such a fast paced world, where social media and health risks like vaping and drugs and alchool are available at every corner and seem to be targeting them deliberately.

After many attempts and a lot of ideas I stopped onto a painting about motherhood.

This painting holds two mothers in one figure, one asleep, unaware how fast her child is slipping into a world too old for them; one wrapped around them, forming a quiet shelter against time itself. Her body curves not to contain, but to hold a little more childhood in place before the world asks too much, too soon. The loose, tilting brushwork mirrors this fragility: shelter is never fixed, never complete, it drifts, it’s imperfect, and still it’s offered again and again. The unwatched hour isn’t a failure to protect. It’s the space between, where shelter is built one return at a time.

Very pleased to say it was selected and it will be exhibited and available for purchase as part of the 2026 Sussex Contemporary, 7 – 28 November.