El Mercado, Riobamba

This is the first canvas that I completed after leaving work. It shows a street corner where severed cow heads have been unloaded onto the pavement by the market in Riobamba, Ecuador. A few figures gather round, presumably waiting to buy them; plastic bags, paper, plantain skins, and grass lie scattered on the floor. A mother stands at the far right with her son and daughter. The rear wheel of a car can just be made out on the other side of the street. Painted on linen canvas it measures 45x31 inches.

I was attracted to the image by the interesting play between the row of heads and the emotionless face of the small indigenous boy. His expression, and his sister's total lack of interest tempers the horror, showing us that this is not a scene of grand guignol but a fact of every day life, something that they are used to seeing, something familiar. I tried to convey this view further by painting the heads in such a way that they no longer seemed grotesque, in fact almost looked beautiful; a fold of flesh and skin on the far left of the picture even reminds me of a petal in van Gogh's "Irises". The benevolent smile of the cow closest to you was not invented but caused, I think, by the snout pressing against the ground.

I worked infrequently on this picture for two years, and it was only once I had left the art shop that I could devote myself fully to it. In fact it was the frustration I felt at not being able to work on it regularly that lead me to leave, and when I did, the canvas was completed within a week.

Asking Price: £3,000