Original artwork description:

This painting is from is a series of paintings originally painted for an international Arts Festival in the UK, called "Whatever You Say, Say Something". They are relatively autobiographical and also explore the lability of memories and how they change through time, via experience, insight and loss. How we can see more in them as we mature.
These are paintings of a childhood in the "Troubles" of Northern Ireland, which left the knawing sense of absence, lost potential and a longing for a home that is no longer there.
The paintings deliberately leave parts of the canvas unpainted, "unfinished" or blurred to express how memory alters with time and how some of those who helped make our memories are no longer here to share them with us anymore. They also express the things we have forgotten or would rather leave forgotten.

The " square" was an area outside most people's homes in the housing estate I grew up in Derry, Northern Ireland.
This is a oil painting of me and my Catholic sisters with our Proestanant friend and neighbours united in a group photo while in 1970s Northern Ireland there was widespread unrest between both religious groups and segregation of people into religious groupings, making this sort of photograph highly unusual.

Materials used:

oil in linen canvas

Tags:

#james henry johnston #whatever you say #oil painting #expressionist #artfinder #friends #sisters #northern ireland #neighbours #housing estates #the troubles #say something