Moel Famau is the legendary hill of childhood, its ascent a kind of allegorical rite of passage for generations of Liverpudlians. In this new painting, I have created a partially imagined view of the Mother Mountain.

The summit profile of Moel Famau as it strides across the Clywdian Range is utterly characteristic. From countless streets, bedroom windows, and skylights across Liverpool and the Wirral glimpses of the hill form part of a collective shared experience. Moel Famau becomes a kind of totemic presence – protective, ever-present, compelling – daring you to venture to the wilds of Loggerheads and simply ascend. Each summer, baggage trains of pushchairs, flip-flops and stilettos scramble up its well-worn slopes.

Two bands of weak violet delineate the rivers Mersey and Dee. The broad avenues of Queens Drive and Woolton Road which offer such tantalising vistas, aggrandising its scale, are subsumed amidst wooded slopes of an indeterminate period. The sky hangs low and will of course, threaten rain.

Oil on canvas, 40x50cm (2019)
BUY