edwardpovey
Selected Paintings
A woman and some shapes
Edward Povey
1998
Oil on linen
32 x 22 inches
Signed and dated lower right
In a private collection in San Francisco
I believe that this painting is about awareness: she is stocky and naked, signifying solidity, reliability and honesty, as well as perhaps vulnerability. Her eyes are closed and with one hand she senses the basic shapes below her: the physical world and its abundance. With the other she senses the worlds beyond. The psyche.
Girls, Girls, Girls
Edward Povey
2008
Oil on linen
28 x 22 inches
Signed and dated lower right
At first the woman herself - quite distraught and standing in her vulnerable nakedness on the landing - appears shocking. But quite soon the girls, endlessly pacing through the house like a terrible treadmill of regret and loss - become far more shocking than the woman, for whom we begin to feel sympathy.
Private World
Edward Povey
2008
Oil on linen
28 x 22 inches
Signed and dated lower left
So much of life is ambiguous. All things simply are what they are, devoid of inherent meaning.
Sleight of Hand
Edward Povey
1997
Oil on linen
20 x 22 inches
Signed and dated upper right
In the artist's own collection
For some years I had been interested in the notion of the inner child – studying the work of John Bradshaw – the family therapist, and when this design appeared – showing the magician, amazed to find the inner child appearing before him, I knew it was a new reminder of this enduring concern. I love the theatrical quality…the spotlight and the heavy folds of the tablecloth.
Things We Can Count On
Edward Povey
2008
Oil on linen
24 x 32 inches
Signed and dated lower right
The basis for this painting is emotional, and its source lies beyond sight in the unconscious.
The man is effeminate and tense, perched on the very edge of a step, and seemingly on the edge of tears. The child could be the child that he once was - painted extremely sensitively: dappled and pale green, the boy is in a rage, storming up the steps, observed by the man that he will become.
Is it that the man can see the natural outcome of the rage which he felt as a child? That if the child were to have continued to express such anger, his path would have taken him inevitably up the tower and off the top, to his death, like the man visible through the window.
