I painted most of this some years ago, and at the time the prevailing feeling about it was one of despair, I liked the painting but I wasn’t confident to show something so simple and abstract, and I wasn’t comfortable admitting I was depressed and on top of that part of it looked to me like a caricature of a 20th century dictator who I won’t mention here.

So I kept the piece at home. I called it ‘This Pear’

Years later, I saw an old film with Charlie Chaplan, and his image replaced that of the dictator, at least to me, I’d only grown more fond of the painting, I’d also grown comfortable with its darkness and simplicity. So I reworked it, finished it and titled it ‘That Pear, with Chaplan’