SOLD The Migrants: Okapi Johnston Collage

The characters are based on the children of the house of Savoy, at a period where many ended up fleeing the French revolution (two of them were Marie Antoinette's sisters-in-law), and others were sent out into Europe to make 'good matches' - which basically makes them either refugees or economic migrants. Over the period of the French Revolution it is estimated that around 130,000 people were officially acknowledged by the Revolutionary government to have emigrated by 1800, whilst the inclusion of all the unlisted fugitives probably puts the figure somewhere nearer 150,000. Of this number, the available evidence points to a figure of around 12,500 émigrés residing in the British Isles at one point or another. A large number were clergy or army, but roughly 25% were titled. It seems there are questions to be asked – at the beginning of 2016 it was estimated around 6000 people were in the Calais camps in appalling conditions trying to get into Britain. I question what Britain would do if 25% of them were aristocracy? I question what makes a migrant rather than a refugee? These paintings are a way of approaching these questions… I have placed my characters are in baron landscapes with a strange air of detachment about the situation just around the corner - or through the woods - the animals depicted are hunted, and mostly either endangered or extinct. The butterflies and moths are completely out of place and of course will not survive. My usual motifs of carpets and maps are there, but where in previous work they have represented opulence and a sense of place, position and ownership, these are now being obscured, snowed over, eroded.

Collage:Oil on Wood

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:28 W x 24 H x 0.5 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.