Sophie Parkin on Molly Parkin’s Alzheimer’s, growing up as an artist and passing the paint brushes on to her daughter…
I grew up watching my mum paint in her studio at the top of our home, which accounts for the smell of turps and oil paint always seeming more comforting to me than freshly baked cakes; those we didn’t have. She always said that Soph artists are born and die as artists; it doesn’t matter what they do in between; life is their art. Keep turning in different directions to see a different way to live. As if it wasn’t a choice, and that is how it has seemed to me. I might have done other things, but I brought an artist’s sensibilities to them, just as my mother did.
Artist mothers have to make choices about cooking or painting. Single artist mothers must make money to feed the babies, so the art goes out the window when the pram arrives (thank you, Cyril Connolly). Creativity never deserts us, but the state and motherhood, the ultimate creative act, forces us to make choices. I saw my mum turn her hand to making hats and bags for Biba as a single mother in the 60’s, become a fashion journalist, a writer of comic erotica novels, a famous TV star of stage and bars, until she came back to her muse thirty years ago on giving up the booze. Much the same thing happened to me, and so, to my daughter (though not a mother), she had an artist granny who encouraged her to paint every day after she picked her up from nursery school when I was still at work. I brought her into the world with the smell of fresh canvas. Then, as a single mother, I had neither the resources to have a studio or space to paint in small, rented flats, I turned to my gifts as a chef and then with writing, books, journalism, broadcasting, running clubs, anything to pay the rent. Creativity demands a way out of us, whatever our state, and binds us in its singularity of purpose, and Carson has learnt this as I learnt from my mother. Other artists, especially family, always understand if you’re late because you had to finish a painting and turn up covered in paint, while different, more normal people are less forgiving.
So why are we showing as three generations of women artists, the obvious bond, in St Leonards? Carson’s father has lived in Hastings for 30 years, and Carson knows it like the back of her hand, with friends and relatives all over the town whilst living in Ramsgate and doing much of her community art in Margate. So many of my friends have moved to this seaside town after becoming fed up with London and its frenetic pace and outrageous cost. The Rogue Gallery is perfectly named for the Parkin reputation; Mum would be delighted.
As I went through Molly’s storage of paintings to decide which to put in this show in St Leonards a place at 93 now she will never see again, but always loved, I marvelled at the stages, the changes in style, confidence and acumen of colour, the choices over sixty years on canvas on paper, with acrylic, oil and gouache And then something struck me, I realised her Alzheimer’s had been with her for far longer than our family or her doctor had guessed. She was tested in 2022, but I think 2008 is where the changes began. It was obvious to me by her mark-making that Alzheimer’s, which removes one’s inhibitions (some might say Mum had none to remove), was doing that in her painting. A freedom stepped in, looseness and any learnt behaviour of appropriate art was abandoned, culminating in her last years of painting, jewel-like, layered boxes of colour and form so visceral you want to touch them.
Molly still draws with the acrylic brush pens I’ve bought her when I visit her every week; yes, she still knows who I am. The drawings are like a deep dive into her psyche, sometimes of frightening, grinning creatures. De Kooning still painted at his gallery’s behest, placing a paint brush into his hand already covered in paint each morning, putting him in front of a canvas, the joy doesn’t leave you, even if your memories have.
I took a box of Molly’s paintings I was going to choose from for the show, and she marvelled at each one, repeating the words jewel and beauty, kissing each tenderly like newborn babies. These have been placed in the cot-like corner of the Rogue Gallery. A suitable name for my mother’s past repute, she has metamorphosed from artist, wife, mother, writer, performer, into quite a different artist, but still always as born an artist, she will die as one, whatever her condition, her paintings will live on. Please visit this joy-filled show that rejoices in the familiar understanding of colour and spirit, family and our mutual understanding from Carson’s Iconographic celebrations of us, to my obsessions with self-portrait as a reflection of the world of philosophy on the South Down Way.
Be prepared for an explosion of colour, popping, mind-expanding, scrumptiously joyfully delicious exhibition of painting and mixed media work that proves creativity and colour run in veins and families.
Molly Parkin (b.1932 Pontycymmer, South Wales) famous for her fashion, journalism, 10 comic erotica novels, 2 autobiographies and no holds barred wit on the stage, Radio and TV, a feminist and style icon, started life as an artist (Alumini Goldsmith and Brighton Art Schools) Won the Rome Scholarship and was bought into the National Collection by the time she was 30. She has had numerous shows and returned to full-time painting for 30 years. Molly Parkin still draws but has Alzheimer’s. Her abstract expressionist painting veered into full abstraction with the disease. Her last surge of creative output was in 2022. FB @MollyParkin
Her daughter…
Sophie Parkin (b 1961, London) was brought up in the whirl of her mother’s fashionista and artistic circle. Always an artist/ writer of books, Novels, non-fiction, teen fiction and journalism, Sophie has done a lot of broadcasting and run nightclubs (Zanzibar, 1997 Hong Kong, The Electricity Showroom, Vout-O-Reenee’s) and art gallery The Stash, curating 90 shows. Famous for The Colony Room Club- a history of Bohemian Soho 1948-2008. Oil painting spiritual, meditative self-portraits, obsessed with Greek and Roman Philosophers in a celebration of reflection, time and Oneness. Sophie has just finished writing, Molly, Me and Mum; Another Link in the Chain – A biography of Molly and an autobiography of herself. She is working on a series of comic time-travelling novels and a club at The Onion Garden, Westminster SOS. @sophieparkinart @sophieparkinwriter
Her daughter…
Carson Parkin-Fairley (b.1990, London) is a multimedia artist and Community Facilitator in Ramsgate and Margate. She has received two Arts Council grants for her work on iconography in the community, working with people not usually involved in art. She began writing about scent and won a Jasmine award for best writing. Her Fairley family lives in Hastings, so she grew up during holidays with her father, Alastair Fairley, and Aunt Jo Fairley Sams. I work in the vein of celebration; I like to look at where we place our worship in life and in this society. If what we focus on magnifies in life, I choose to focus on joy.’ @Carsonparkinfairley
In 2008, the three Parkin women ran a multigenerational disco, The Parkin Lot, in Greek Street, for a year.
Words/Photos Sophie Parkin © Artlyst 2025
Rogue Gallery St Leonards Sussex presents The Parkin Lot -10.5-15.6.2025 The Parkin Lot -3 generations- 1 show- it’s in the DNA! Molly Parkin, Sophie Parkin, Carson Parkin Fairley. Invite you… to a PV 10 May 5 -8 pm -15 June 2025 All enquiries – 07507781946