SERIES: BEAUTIFULLY BLEAK

Exploring the counterpoint between the beauty of nature and the dark side of humanity is a recurrent theme in my work. In this series the viewer is invited to be deceived by the contrast between the delicacy of the image and the grim drama that lies behind it. 

“Brides in the Bath”

Oil on Canvas | 24″ x 36″

In 1910 George Joseph Smith met Beatrice (Bessie) Mundy. Not long after they met and after finding out she had inherited £2500 from her late father, he proposed. Two years into the marriage he took her to see a doctor claiming she had epileptic fits that she was unaware of. On moving to Herne Bay in Kent he got her to purchase a steel bathtub which became the perfect murder weapon. After drowning her, Smith sent the doctor a note saying she had died in the bath. At the inquest that followed the verdict was accidental death by drowning. Smith was then awarded her inheritance.

In 1913 he went on to murder Alice Burnham and in 1914 Margaret Elizabeth Lofty, both of whom were also drowned. In 1915 he was convicted of all three murders. He was sentenced to death by hanging in Maidstone Prison. It became known as the “Brides in the Bath Murders”.

“Green Tea and Cake Anyone?”

Digital Painting | 24″ x 36″

Mary Ann Cotton (1832 – 1873) is known for being the first ever female serial killer.

Sometime after marrying her first husband William, he took out a life insurance policy that covered both him and their three children. She felt let down by William who reneged on his promises of a good life. Seeing no other way out of her dire situation she purchased Arsenic and started adding it to his tea. After his death she collected on the insurance policy.

Over the next 20 years, almost without suspision, she got away with killing 10 children, three husbands, five stepchildren, her mother a sister-in-law and a lover all by Arsenic poisoning. 

She was finally caught, sentenced and hanged at Durham Jail for the death of her stepson, Edward James Cotton.

Open Edition Prints available now

Please get in contact to discuss sizes and whether you want it printed on German Etching Paper or Stretched Canvas.