The way in which the object is painted onto the board evokes similar confusion. The objects are apparently real - defined by the strong shadow that locates them - but exist however within an ambiguous space where the two-dimensional quality of the drawing board contrasts with the three-dimensional quality of the painted object. In some paintings areas are blacked out but still areas of the board are left raw and exposed. As the eye crosses the painting from one side to the other it is forced to tread a thin line between ambiguity and certainty. The figurative is juxtaposed by the abstract whilst the two-dimensional sits aside the three-dimensional.
It is for these reasons that the paintings have the quality of a frozen dream or perhaps even evoke the feeling of twilight - a ambiguous period of the day that is neither one nor the other; where seemingly anything can happen. This dreaminess is heightened by the sketch-like way in which the objects sit on the board. The painted area around the object is more spontaneous than the way in which the object is painted itself, giving the impression of a fleeting moment or even a freeze-frame of the dream-like world which is apparently being portrayed.
As a figurative oil painting in world of new media it is useful to consider that there is a deliberate relationship between the nostalgic subject-matter, the way is it is portrayed and the medium it is portrayed in. The painting, whilst surrounded by abstract elements of bare-board and marks, is essentially quite academic and you could even say that the traditional genres of still-life and landscape are evoked in the way that the subject is painted. From this perspective the use of oil painting to depict objects that once gave security to the child before being discarded and rendered useless once the child "grew up", suggests that there is still new ways in which we can make paintings in an era that is saturated in new media and forms of artistic expression.