This ‘difficult’ work was one of those that I gave up on and turned around to face the wall for about a month. When I came to look at it again I found I was more favourably disposed to it. The central image is a battleship. The dinosaur skulls were added later.
I’m pleased to have reached my 100th blog post. Here is another large scale drawing from a long time ago. Layers of compressed charcoal build up the tones. I washed over them with a brush, which formed the drips. the perspective is off but the piece was more concerned with creating an atmosphere. It’s based on the Belfast Telegraph building on York Street.
Here is one of a series of large scale images of Belfast buildings I made using compressed charcoal on cardboard around 2001. An art college tutor interpreted them as being akin to Western sets, appearing somehow hollow and unpopulated. This piece is around 6×5 foot in size.
My friend just pointed outed that the title refers to a line from “on your own again” by Scott Walker, from the incredible Scott 4 album. The haunting lyrics must have been floating round in my head when I titled this piece.
This is the last in the recent series of drawings from around 2001 that I have decided to post. It is a view of the old part of Belmont primary school in Belfast that I attended in the 1980s. It’s drawn from a photograph of the building in strong sunlight. The shadows and darkness have been exaggerated in my usual way, so that it appears quite oppressive and prison like.
A building or a brick perched in a puddle or a sea.
Glued pigment and paint distressed with sandpaper and scraped.
Sallow sun or moon high in the beige sky.
This work explores similar territory to Shoreline, this time seeking to bring to mind the feel of a deserted beach as a pervasive darkness draws in. The scrim fishing nets are present again, beneath the cliff like shape on the left hand side. Raw pigment was glued to the canvas on the right hand area then manipulated and scraped with a fork and other implements.
detail
Layers of compressed charcoal and washes were built up then erased into, working from a photograph of a burnt building.
The title is deliberately open to interpretation. The following passage is quoted from Dr Tim Wilson
“Going under (untergehen) is the decisive act of the philosopher or artist who must bring back whatever enlightenment he or she has achieved to those within the community who are ready to hear it.
For instance, each of the following, in their own way, go under: Plato’s philosopher-ruler, More’s Hythloday, Spenser’s Immerito, and Nietzsche’s Zarathustra.”
This is a pencil and graphite work from two years ago. Layers are added and erased. Some of the marks appear quite agressive.
John Macormac 