Túir Faire (contd)

I hope you are all still with me and not too bored!!! Not sure if you can leave comments- I think you can but I need to suss all that out but please do or pop me an email if you have any comments or questions!!!

I already had some linen boards that I had already been experimenting on with ink and silica salt so I just decided to cut them in half and start working on the watchtowers and see how it turned out. They really just started out as playful experimentation but they actually went on to inform the rest of the work. There is something quite ‘theatrical’ about the pieces I think and as yet, not purely abstract. This is a series of four and they can sit alone in their own right but I wanted to play about with different 3D installation. I always want to think of ways that the work can be ‘viewed’ without it being the bog standard 2D piece displayed on the wall.

A lot of the imagery from The Troubles shows everything encased in metal caging...the street lights, shop fronts, the police and army barracks and watchtowers. Here I had cages made by a blacksmith- I deliberately wanted them to be ad hoc with unfinished edges- to hold the paintings. These were suspended from the ceiling at different heights and situated at a point where viewers could engage with the work and walk around the work whilst not infringing on any other work within the show. 

These were shown at the Art as Exchange Installations Show in Dundalk, 2019 and at the Drawn from Borders exhibition in Fort Dunree, Donegal and the Tower Museum, Derry, 2020/2021. The last two pieces have been sold to a private buyer.

I knew I wanted to go bigger and scale these images up so my next step was to start working on large sheets of Fabriano (specially made to take oil paint). I still wanted to keep the circular theme present- crisp and obvious but try and incorporate the watchtowers in a looser way. These took quite a while to produce as the oil went on in different stages. First, I put a wash of cobalt blue on for the initial stage. When it was dry, a heavier layer of cobalt blue went on as the circular lens image and after that I then worked on the towers in a looser way than I had with the previous work on board.

The first two pieces have been sold to Newry and Mourne Museum for their Museum Art Collection and the third to a private buyer.

And here is little ol’ mise standing with one of the pieces that the Museum bought for their collection!!!