Music as a Catalyst for Still Life Stories

I find inspiration in a myriad of ways when I paint; these days I am on a music jag. Atmospheric songs help me to choose my objects, find my colours and tell new stories. Sometimes things happen in a different order. Recently I have been editing the towels and sheets in our airing cupboard.  This isn’t the sort of thing I’d usually do, but what with the dry weather and our 16C house, things have moved a bit and disappointingly I had to clean up thatch straw, re-wash everything and one thing led to another.

Each towel and set of sheets has a story that I haven’t thought about in years. I had a forced trip down memory lane. The same thing happened when I went into the antique store next to the Pond Gallery the other week. There was a £3 tin boat that made me think about the song, Slow Boat to China.

Slow Boat to China, egg tempera on panel, 30 × 31 cm, August 2025

I put the song on a mixed tape. At twenty-six getting a boyfriend on a slow boat to China was about the most romantic thing I could imagine. That was what the tin boat at the front of the still life excited in me.

Next I went through some old photo albums I found at the carboot sale years ago. The people might have been on a cruise or absent but not forgotten. Doesn’t every cabin have a basket of fruit? Can you hear the music?