PAST AND FUTURE

Welcome to the present, and to my first blog on my soon-to-be ready Website!

It has taken a while to get here, just as it is a lifetime’s journey to make work that you are happy with – if ever that occurs. Indeed, it is the intention to arrive at that point – to create the ‘masterpiece’, that keeps us all going. We are rarely completely satisfied with our own work, though there are occasions when by chance seeing an old piece creates a little thrill. Did I really do that then?

And a current painting has so much of our history, our current status, and our hopes for the future, that indeed, it could be said to be timeless. Each work encapsulates multiple facets of its maker.

As a mature student in NCAD, I recall my admiration for some of the 18/19-year olds there, who, without a lifetime’s experience behind them, seemed already mature in their commitment to a very personal kind of expression. One such artist was Robert Clarke from Donegal. I am happy to own a piece of his from those days.

Another young artist whose work I admire is Ciaran Bowen Murphy, who is working in Wexford now. One to watch!

Whether an artist catches the ‘eye’ of someone who can effectively alter the course of their career or not, there are many really good artists who, without significant successes, continue to forge their way through a sometimes murky art landscape, to achieve a lifetime’s artistic yield to be proud of.