Via Dolorosa— Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patria Mori (The path of Sorrow — it is sweet and fitting to die for the Fatherland) 2015

Oil on canvas. 900 x 180 cms (four panels)

A large scale nine metre long paneled painting sets ‘the stage’ by [re]presenting the industrial-scale magnitude of tombstone production to meet the demand of the War Graves Commission for an adequate and tasteful commemoration of the dead.

The painting represents the industrial scale and magnitude of the production of gravestones to mark and honour the Anzac dead in the First World War. Quarries in England and elsewhere vied for individual contracts for between 120,000–150,000 gravestones to be made to specifications from quarried limestone. The four-paneled painting incorporates significant symbols relating to Anzac service during the war including a two-up game of chance, being enacted using two “Death Pennies” (1914–1918 Memorial Plaques) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Plaque_(medallion) as well as the service medal ribbons and the Anzac military device. These devices were carved by hand onto each gravestone.

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