The Elephant That Had Once Belonged to My Grandad

This is a painting of an overlooked corner of Jolley’s bedroom. A ceramic elephant plinth stands beside a bookcase and guards the door. On his plinth is a long-dead cactus which has started to collapse in exhaustion. Plants, especially dead ones, are an established motif in Jolley’s oeuvre but this painting for the first time pulls back to show us how these plants figure in the artist’s daily life. The title suggests a sentimental significance for the elephant. Jolley has said “That was my Grandad’s ornament originally. Him pretending that the elephant was giving me sweets is one of my only memories of him”. Are we to take from this painting a ‘memento mori’ message?

• Medium: Painting, Oil on Wooden Pannel
• Size: 36 cm (H) x 28 cm (W) x 2 cm (D)
• Original, one of a kind.