Many of my paintings rewrite my own history, but through these false imaginings and pretences, another truer history emerges. Traditional imagery and painting methodology all invite an uncertainty of purpose to the viewer.

Pam Hawkes 2008


Pam is particularly interested in the notion of the picture frame and how the frame can interact with the image and has become an integral part of the work….She constantly plays with ambiguity, text may or may not refer to the image,and the subjects themselves are fairly androgynous, opening up a whole range of sexual interpretation and mixed meaning. The sitters are stylised and although they may be family and friends, this is not portraiture as you and I know it.
They are knowingly idealised, in a way that plays with a notion that there is no ideal family unit. Indeed, like her characters within the frame we too are trapped within a world that is not exactly of our own choosing. They are bound in a realm of domesticity. The fabric and the folds, the wallpaper effect and the use of household implements such as cloth and sponges in technique, all point to an artist who is fully aware that the home is not necessarily where the heart is.

Benjamin Austin. 2007