GENERAL COMMENTARY
This particular piece is part of a series of paintings set-in and responding to the contemporary Irish landscape (Submitted Artworks 1-5).
They were all inspired by my own personal and phenomenal experience of particular places that form the landscape near my home in the west of Ireland. Each one simply bears witness to a still and silent human moment or memory - acting as an evocative fragment of elusive meaning, hinting at ... ‘unknowables, unsayables, unpronouncables'.
With this series I am focused on atmosphere and mood, -trying to embrace and amplify whatever underlying psychological tension is to be found occupying that space between self and surroundings in these particular locations. The figures populating the scenes are often absorbed in something unseen by way of prompting the viewer to construct and continue the suspended narrative.
The aim is that perhaps in so doing, the viewer is compelled to explore their own well of personal experience and emotional memory in order to weave the story.
Whilst each piece is quite particular and deeply personal to me, I hope there is a sense of intimacy that allows others to find something universal in the midst of the specificity of my particular experience.
SPECIFIC COMMENTARY
I feel like this painting speaks to something that I've heard the writer Michael Harding speaking about over the years. I'm interested in it as it relates to the regenerative nature of that relationship between the self and our surroundings. In his work he writes really honestly and articulately about masculinity and the immobilising effect of depression and shame (amongst other things). But most importantly he writes about how that immobilisation can be lifted by reconnecting with the present moment, your physical environment and by taking a simple action. A particular setting or place can be divorced from the 'triggers' to be found elsewhere, and serve as a balm to the body and mind. This feels like an especially relevant message these days and something I wanted to implicitly communicate. With reference to Hardings work I'm thinking particularly of 'Staring at Lakes'. He would describe that book (and his work generally) as trying to tell the story of how we 'resolve the darkness', -to find how we resolve our lives beautifully. A worthy sentiment.
The figure depicted is an old friend of mine. The composition is based on a photograph I shot (unbeknownst to him) whilst out walking in a place called Glenteenassig in Co.Kerry last year.
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