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Oil on Canvas,
180cm x 120cm
‘Tis – the west of Ireland abbreviation of ‘it is’ is a term I love to hear. The softness of it fills me with affection.
‘Tis was also the title of Frank McCourt’s second memoir. Following on from his best-selling ‘Angela’s Ashes’which portrayed the bleakness of Ireland in the earlier half of the last century.
While we still enjoy significant rain fall, Ireland of today is vibrant. In spite of challenges economic and social, we are as a people – I feel, forward looking. And our landscape is abundant – it holds and inspires us all.
‘Tis’– this painting, is about looking forward. It was made in many, many layers and gave its own set of challenges. When composing a painting, I am not looking for likeness but sensation – the feeling of coming home or being home. Place is important but not in a geo map specific way. I am creating sense of place.
Just as happiness is never truly a thing but more a feeling. I am endeavouring to evoke that feeling when you round the Irish coastline and the views, as Seamus Heaney so beautifully set the scene in his poem Postscript “.. catch the heart off guard and blow it open”.
‘Threshold’ marked the beginning of so much newness for me.
After years (and years!) of treading water and often struggling to keep afloat, my painting practice and by association my life, suddenly and almost imperceptibly hit a growth spurt.
Making my largest paintings coincided with finally finding a building that would be my home and house my studio and showroom. Built pre-1900, ‘Threshold’ was created as part of an exhibition to honour the space and all that had gone before and was yet to be.
Poet and philosopher John O’Donoghue wrote beautifully of change and emergence. I loved his notion to ‘ bless the space between us’ as I felt it marked that special time between the past and the future.
“The rhythm of emergence is a gradual slow beat always inching its way forward; change remains faithful to itself until the new unfolds in the full confidence of true arrival”
I have realised life is never linear and change is as constant as the tide. Even in trying times, we must believe in perpetual motion.
Forward is always a direction. Our evolution is illuminated by blessings and possibility, but you must believe in possibility (often things you can’t yet see, but can just about feel!).