This painting is a portrait of Sikelela Owen's mother when she was pregnant with her. It is a reimagining of an image Owen has known throughout her childhood, and one that she has previously painted and drawn. In this version, the image is revisited with more light and transparency, allowing the figure to feel more open, expansive, and less contained than in earlier iterations.
The work sits within a small group of images Owen has repeatedly returned to – three or four photographs of her mother during pregnancy. One of the key reference points in this lineage is an earlier painting of mine, *The Knitting*, which also draws on this period. Together, these works form a visual meditation on maternity, holding, and becoming.
In **Mountains and Things**, the body is reclined and at ease, positioned within an outdoor landscape. The setting allows the image to move beyond domestic or interior space and towards a sense of freedom and openness. This shift reflects a broader concern in the exhibition with motherhood not only as care and containment, but also as autonomy, presence, and bodily experience in the world.
Ultimately, the painting becomes a quiet and intimate reflection on origins – a way of picturing the moment before Owen's own life begins, held within her mother’s body and embedded in memory, landscape, and time.
