Original artwork description:

This painting is from is a series of paintings originally painted for an international Arts Festival in the UK. 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.

This painting "Ulster Gothic" is of the weekly visit to the Grandparents. Some enjoyed this day out. Some did not. It is a painting about split affections, or emotional divide and rule. The children given varying degrees of attention and affection. The boy at the front appears almost invisible in his grandparents affection or so he feels.
This is the lasting legacy whether imagined or real.

Materials used:

oil in linen canvas

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