I Have A Dream

Painted in acrylic on canvas, this work depicts Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) — civil rights leader, Baptist minister, and one of the most important and influential figures of the 20th century. Rendered in the bold red, white and blue of the American flag, the portrait places King firmly within the fabric of the nation whose conscience he challenged and changed. Six-pointed stars — drawn from the iconography of the American flag — cascade across the composition, simultaneously adorning and obscuring the figure, as though the dream itself is still being fought for rather than fulfilled.

King is depicted mid-speech, his expression resolute and focused. The palette is deliberately patriotic — not as a celebration of the status quo, but as a reclamation. King did not stand outside America; he held it to its own stated ideals. His most famous speech, delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on 28th August 1963 to over 250,000 people, called not for revolution but for the nation to honour the promise it had already made — that all men are created equal.

He was assassinated on 4th April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 39 years old. The dream endures.

This series of four works is painted in acrylic on canvas and constitutes a personal response to the Blue Nude series created by Henri Matisse (1869–1954) in 1952. Matisse's originals were made during the final years of his life, when illness had confined him to bed and he could no longer stand to paint. Working with scissors and painted paper, he created a series of cut-out female figures — bold, flat, deeply blue — that are now regarded as among the most important works of the 20th century. The figures were not portraits but archetypes: the body reduced to its most essential form, weight and movement captured in silhouette alone.

These four canvases are an artist's conversation with that legacy — each one a reinterpretation of a different pose from Matisse's series, rendered in deep navy on white. Where Matisse used cut paper, here the form is painted with deliberate, confident strokes, each white line carving the figure out of darkness. Together they form a sequence — four bodies, four moments, one ongoing meditation on form, freedom and the female figure. 

 Painted in acrylic on canvas, this is the first work in the Blue Nude series — a personal response to Henri Matisse's iconic Blue Nude cut-outs of 1952. This composition is the most dynamic of the four, depicting two figures whose forms interlock and overlap in a dense, complex arrangement. One arches dramatically backward whilst the other folds forward and low, their bodies filling every corner of the canvas in a tangle of limbs and negative space. The energy is restless and physical — two forces occupying the same space, neither yielding. The white lines carving through the deep navy give the figures their definition, as though light itself is pulling them apart. 

Painted in acrylic on canvas, this second work — marked on the canvas edge as MATISSE-NO-2 — is the largest and most commanding of the series. The figure dominates the canvas almost entirely, her torso and legs filling the frame, one arm sweeping upward and behind whilst the body curves forward and across. The composition is bold and uninhibited — a figure taking up space without apology. Where other pieces in the series explore stillness or tension, this one is pure presence. The deep navy against the white ground gives it a graphic, almost monumental quality. 

Painted in acrylic on canvas, this third piece in the series presents a single figure seated low, the torso upright and chest forward, one arm raised and bent behind the head in a gesture that is simultaneously open and self-contained. The body is confident and grounded, filling the canvas without straining against it. Of the four works, this composition feels the most settled — a figure at ease within its own weight and presence. The white line tracing the torso and arm creates a clean interior geometry that gives the piece a quiet, architectural stillness.

Painted in acrylic on canvas, this fourth work — marked on the canvas edge as MATISSE-NO-3 — depicts a single figure in a tucked, folded pose, knees drawn in, the head bowed and arm extending sharply upward and across the top of the canvas like a blade. The composition is angular and compressed, the body turned almost entirely away from the viewer. There is something withdrawn about it — a figure gathered inward, occupying as little space as possible. Against the expansive energy of the other pieces in the series, this one feels like a held breath.

Painted in acrylic on canvas, this joyful and vibrant work is one of the most personal pieces in the collection — a love letter from a grandfather to his granddaughter. The canvas is styled as the cover of a comic book, complete with the header Darkgable Comics Inc — Issue No.1 — Limited Edition, dated Friday 22nd October 2021, and dedicated to Aiya Daryl Adolphus. The date is no coincidence — 22nd October 2021 was Aiya's 4th birthday. The comic was created for her on that day, a one-of-a-kind gift imagining her as the superhero she already was.

At the centre stands Aiya as a fully realised superhero — masked, caped, her costume blazing in blue and yellow, a glowing power emanating from her outstretched hand, the letter A emblazoned on her chest. A full rainbow runs down the left edge of the canvas, vivid and unapologetic. The title commands: USE YOUR SUPERPOWERS.

The work captures something every grandparent recognises — the overwhelming sense that this child, this particular child, is extraordinary. The superpowers here are not fictional. They are the real ones: curiosity, imagination, intelligence, and the fearless belief that anything is possible. Aiya doesn't know it yet, but she already has them all. 

 Painted in acrylic on canvas, this vibrant portrait is a deeply personal work — a depiction of my son Daryl, rendered in a bold, colourful style that draws on the traditions of Pop Art and Neo-Expressionism. The face is built from layered geometric shapes in pink, yellow, teal, red and blue, fragmenting and reassembling the subject across the canvas. Musical notes and a treble clef float across the background, weaving music into the fabric of his identity. His name is spelled across the left edge of the canvas in block letters. It is a portrait not just of a face, but of a person — his energy, his reativity, and the world he carries with him.