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Statement

 Apothecaries & Curiosities is a collection of paintings and prints which are inspired by the beautiful glassware used by early pharmacists. All the bottles depicted are real, as are their contents. I have quite a large collection of my own, while the rare ones I have sourced in pharmaceutical museums. The paintings have a narrative which the subjects embody, and that is how we are fascinated by things that are dangerous, and that these bottles, which are coloured and ribbed to warn us that the contents can kill are bewitching to look at. The names of the medicines, many of which are poisons - which unfortunately  killed more often than they cured are shrowded in mystique - Belladonna, Digitalis, Arsenic, Antimony. Immediately we think of Agatha Christie - who was an expert in poisons and other  and many other classic and well-loved works of literature, Malice Aforethought being one of my own particular favourites.

In the Poison Garden paintings, I continue the theme of wicked beauty as all the plants represented are poisonous to varying degrees - Aconite (Monkswood) being the most deadly.