The series Offspring is an exploration of motherhood, love and loss. I started these paintings after my nephew Andrea Argenio passed away in 2019 from a rare and incurable cancer, the same year that my youngest son Max left home. I was inspired by Henry Moore’s ‘Mother and Child’ series of sculptures, which are composed of a mother-figure embracing and sometimes encircling the child-figure, as well as by Kate Bush’s song ‘This Woman’s Work’ and the words that ran repeatedly through my mind during the last months of Andrea’s life – that he would leave behind ‘an Andrea-shaped hole" in all our lives.

Almost all of the works in this series are individual paintings that are part of a pair, reflecting the strange reality of one individual becoming two. The variety of colour and media reflects the changing nature and demands of motherhood, and how parenthood must evolve and adapt to the developing individuality of the child.

All proceeds from the sale of my paintings will go to support the work of the foundation that our family founded in my nephew's honor. The mission of the Andrea Argenio Foundation’s is to support the lives of young adults fighting cancer as well as of young adult cancer survivors. The moneys raised tonight will be gifted directly to a special collaboration between the Foundation and the Way Up Program run by the Italian not for profit, Campo Base. Way Up is a week-long multi-sport adventure therapy program in the Italian Dolomites offered every September for free to English-speaking young adults affected by cancer.