In this painting Dave Marshall reflects on his upbringing within a religious community and depicts various prohibited images, superstitions and taboos. He explains “it was held as a truth among most adults I knew at the time. I personally don't agree with any of these prohibitions, however, I'm not trying to put a judgement on this. Most groups of people invent their own mythologies and exclusions to a lesser or greater extent. It is a difficult part of human nature”. “I thought, what if I put these all together? What would it look to depict a hell constructed from the orthodox and superstitious beliefs that were described to me in an oral tradition, but because they were taboo, could not be shown in imagery. When you put them all together it actually looks like a pretty good time.”


The method of painting came from the way I approach pottery. With pottery I tried to understand each aspect of the process, so in deciding to paint, this involved making my own paint. The paint is milk paint, which was developed thousands of years ago by the Egyptians.

The colours are made from clays, copper and charcoal. As soon as I began to work with this medium it took on the look of religious painting, which became the theme for this suite of paintings.