Windows and doors!

"Drumlin Skyscape", December 2011

Oils on canvas, 101.5cm x 81cm

I have always loved the rounded shapes of the local hills (drumlins), having grown up surrounded by them. In many ways, the landscape in the painting is very typical of County Down; the drumlin itself, the small fields, the rich greens. But in addition I wanted to create the feeling of the sky extending over the hill and above the viewer. Hence the title of "Drumlin Skyscape".

There are many reasons for creating paintings. But, for me, each one acts as a window and sometimes as a door. As a window, a painting allows the spectator to look inside the mind and imagination of the artist and, more importantly, if they can relate to it themselves then it allows them to look inside their own mind and memories. But sometimes a painting can also act as a door. By this I mean that a spectator can relate to the painting so intensely that it acts as a means of stepping through to another world of experience, leaving them emotionally in a different place to where they were before.