Charlie Kirkham | Myth-inspired paintings about survival, love and the body

This series started with a visit to Southwark Cathedral, where a panel showing a battling George and the Dragon inspired a drawing and painted copy. Year later, a trip to Coventry Cathedral re-ignited a fascination with the traditional English folklore.

What was it about George and the Dragon that held such long term appeal?

 Driving home it seemed like the Dragon had followed me, staring back from the logo of my Takeaway, hovering over movie posters, dancing in fire on computer game cases.

Boiling the kettle it seemed like the steam was the Dragon’s breath reminding me to tell the story. The Dragon was a vanished master, a creature created of magic that once ruler a world where the extraordinary met the everyday. 

George, our chivalric hero, seemed to play a strange role. Saving a princess, saving a village but at the cost of the final Dragon leaving the world forever. 

The phantom of that lost, last Dragon started to appear in my drawings, piece by piece telling the story of their strange life, death and legacy.