Dream Cellar

The meandering 17 year journey of this painting’s completion is similar to my own life journey throughout the years. It begins in the middle of a heatwave in 2002. My friend Jim and I spent an entire weekend in original cellars in the East End, resembling zoo exhibits (or perhaps Amsterdam women working the window fronts), drinking wine and being feted by visitors. Skip ahead to that same cellar now named Mother Vine and hosting my exhibition “Seasons 2017”. We made the canvas to fit the window front, with the purpose of being completed for a wine collector who would populate it with his/her favourite wine. We end the tale in 2018, where an extraordinary fit of midnight bravery on the eve of my “Apokalypsis” exhibition opening. I decided to develop the work into a depiction of what really happens when one spends long enough, inside, or staring into a “Dream Cellar”… Minds wander and reality fractures, not always in a bad way….This piece was the birth of my collaboration with Peter Hall and Amy Heather and is the foundation piece of the entire “Eschaton” project. Mazi Wines, who feature in the cellar, have acquired the work and have used it on the label of their new super-premium 2019 Rosé.