This painting is taken from a photographic image of Sikelela Owen and her cousin on Owen's first birthday. It forms part of a wider series and sits within the broader themes of memory, family, and time that run throughout the exhibition. It is also one of the few interior scenes in the body of work.
The image depicts the two of them seated together, and carries a quiet intimacy. The cousin portrayed is the daughter of Owen's aunt who has since passed away, which gives the painting an added emotional weight. The work therefore becomes not only a childhood portrait, but also a meditation on continuity and loss.
The palette is simple, bold, and muted, with colour moving fluidly across the surface of the painting. The same tones connect the figures to each other and to the surrounding space, creating a physical and emotional coherence. This connection is reinforced in the composition itself, where the two faces meet, forming a literal point of contact.
The painting draws on the tradition of formal portraiture, but its softness and restraint reflect how memory operates – fragmentary, faded, and quietly shifting over time. For Owen, the power of the work lies in this sense of connection: through colour, through touch, and through shared history.
The image is one the artist returns to often. Owen had chickenpox on her first birthday, which gives the scene a strangely adult undertone, but it has become especially poignant now that this cousin is unwell. In this sense, the painting looks backwards not only into childhood, but into the emotional layers that accumulate around family images as time passes.
