Further Down the Line

This series continues the exploration of the journey taken in the Down the Line series of paintings. This body of work concentrates more on the paradox of our role as ‘Destroyer and Preserver’ of the archaeology of the Irish boglands and  formal aspects of its flora's colours and textures.

I am interested in the contrast between the boglands that are left to develop and mature naturally and those that are sculpted, swept and changed unnaturally by a process of industrialisation used for generating electricity.

The paintings are abstractions from on-site studies of the boglands and how they are changing. Sometimes dreamlike, they could be memories from the past and the development of the lines or routes through these flat wetlands that allowed people access to them for generations. The paintings also draw on the pressure on the Irish landscape to deliver a fast and modern infrastructure.