Friday 12 December 2008

Forest Walk Series

The compositions which constitute the Forest Walk series emerged in part alongside the Bullersten ones and are closely related to them. The 'walk' refers to the artist's rambles in Navar Forest, not far from his home. Several of these pictures emanated from gouache studies of a quarry face made in the forest.

Dr. S B Kennedy 2006


Forest Walk IV
Gouache on Paper
70 x 100 cm
2005

Forest Clearing
Gouache on Paper
70 x 100 cm
2005

Forest Walk III
Gouache on Paper
70 x 100 cm
2005

Winter Sun II
Gouache on Paper
40 x 50 cm
2005

Friday 24 October 2008

Lough Conn, Co. Mayo




These drawings are taken from a portfolio of work I did when staying at Enniscoe House in Co. Mayo, August 2006. I sat on the shoreline of Lough Conn, several hundred metres from the house, and drew with water-based wax crayons on paper. I was struck by the sound of the landscape, coupled with the shifting light.

Thursday 23 October 2008

Richard Griffiths Portrait in Bronze


Richard Griffiths
Actor
Life-size
Bronze
2006

Wednesday 22 October 2008

WInter Light, The Merrion, Dublin, 2007



Concrete Form with Red over Orange
Acrylic on Linen
150 x 220 cm
2007


Concrete Form with Purple over Blue
Acrylic on Linen
120 x 160 cm
2007


Concrete Form with Violet over Blue
Acrylic on Linen
120 x 160 cm
2007



Concrete Form with Pink on Orange
Acrylic on Linen
120 x 160 cm
2007




Concrete Form with Deep Pink and Yellow
Acrylic on Linen
120 x 160 cm

Winter Light
Exhibition of Paintings
The Merrion
Dublin
Nov. 2007
Opened by Frank X. Buckley
Essay by Dr. Hilary Pyle
Arts Consultant, Catherine Cotter

Part of the inspiration for these paintings came from the observation of the play of winter light on the exterior wall of my studio. The concrete wall, with it's corrugated acrylic roof panels, had similarities to the concrete block with it's chamfered lines. Both the wall and the block reveal the hard clarity of the winter light, and it was this purity of brightness that I wanted to explore.

Tuesday 21 October 2008

Portrait of Charles Haughey in Bronze


Charles Haughey
Politician
Life-size
Bronze
1994

Sunday 19 October 2008

Bullersten 2001 - 2003



Bullersten
Acrylic on Canvas
96 x 122 cm
2001

I began this series by taking some pebbles into the studio, and attaching them to card. I took these as my starting point before drawing the islands. I just looked at how the light was shaping them, and how they changed in character as the light moved round the studio. Then I adapted the idea to the islands outside, stripping them down to the very basics, and seeing what was left. I look at the island outside, Inishmacsaint, as a tonal exercise and just pare the shapes right down. The three things I am interested in are form, texture, and colour, and combining these in both my sculpture and painting.

One notion I'm interested in here as well, comes from the Scandinavian notion of the Bullersten. This is used to describe a boulder in a stream that produces sound when it is moved. Everything has a frequency, and if you can tap into that frequency then you can begin to decode what that particular thing is about. So the lines around the forms are picking up that notion of frequency, and also of scarring, or if we think of the island idea, of water marks or waves. These are further things which add to the vocabulary, translated on to the canvas.



Blue Water
Acrylic on Linen
96 x 122 cm
2003

By filling almost all of the canvas with a single form, I'm trying to express the reality of the big stones you find lying on the lough shore. You look at them - big, heavy, brown-black - like incredibly solid pieces of peat. I'm trying to convey the hardness of the thing, the beauty of it in terms of its form and colour, and then flattening all that out and hanging it on a light structure, a piece of canvas. It's a sculptural thing as much as a painterly thing, a deliberate attempt to convey mass.



White Island
Acrylic on Canvas
50 x 60 cms
2003

There is an island on Lough Erne, Co. Fermanagh which has ancient religious significance, and that gives the title to this painting. The circle of magenta is a device to energise the white form in the centre. I am trying to create a white form that resonates.


Orange and Grey
Acrylic on Canvas
96 x 122 cm
2002

Sometimes when the lough is low the stones around the island dry out. They are usually quite black and shiny, but when they dry they become a sort of bleached white. The areas around the orange forms represent that. However, this is an abstract composition. The forms relate primarily to one another, not to something in the landscape.

Thursday 16 October 2008

From the Landscape 2008, Naughton Gallery, Queen's University, Belfast





From the Landscape
The Naughton Gallery at Queen's
Queen's University, Belfast
Catalogue Essay by SB Kennedy
May 2008

The works in this exhibition were painted between 2005 - 2008 and are based on observations of light falling on the hard-edged profile of an unused concrete sill. The paintings are executed in acrylic wash on primed linen and are deeply influenced by the atmosphere around my studio.
I'm interested in the energy of the Fermanagh countryside and want to get across a feeling of calm, of solitude and stillness. Looking over the fields, the lake, and the islands, it is clear that there is more to the whole thing than is first visible. In my paintings, I want to create a carapace of light and texture that vibrates, that gets across the spirituality of the landscape.

Titles of Work :

Concrete Form
Acrylic on Linen
96 x 122 cm
2005

I started this painting using several layers of titanium white with a light mix of blue, to create a cool space full of depth. The initial layers in painting the concrete form were of cadmium yellow, followed by several layers of mid-grey, allowing the underpainting to show through. The cadmium yellow ground lifts the form off the canvas to give an architectural / sculptural element.

Concrete Form with Pink and Yellow
Acrylic on Linen
60 x 80 cm
2008

This painting is based on one of the exterior walls of my studio, a large concrete structure, so the experience is of looking out at the world from a concrete block rather than looking at one.

Concrete Form with Two Purples
Acrylic on Linen
60 x 80 cm
2008

Recent paintings are moving towards an architectural framework. More emphasis is placed on the structure and the spacing of the colour columns. Colours are forced together. The sharp, narrow white line is inspired by the aluminium glazing bar of my studio door. Looking out across the landscape, this narrow band of metal catches the white light, accentuating the contrast of colours in the landscape.

Thursday 2 October 2008

The Burren Co. Clare Ireland




Here are a few examples of pencil sketches made en plein air during my most recent visit to the Burren. I enjoy the strong sculptural elements in this richly varied karst - landscape and see possibilities of linking this theme with my
Bullersten series.

Wednesday 1 October 2008

List of Catalogues 1996 - 2008



Philip Flanagan
From The Landscape
Dr S B Kennedy
The Naughton Gallery at Queen's University, Belfast
2008
ISBN 9780853899303

Philp Flanagan
Winter Light
Dr Hilary Pyle
The Merrion Dublin
2007
ISBN 9780955748202

Philip Flanagan
Dr S B Kennedy
OSB Gallery
2006
ISBN

Philip Flanagan
Bullersten
Dr. R. Anderson
Dr. J Bell
Anderson Galleries
2003
ISBN1870157486

Sculpted Heads by Philip Flanagan
Bronze Voices
Dr J Bell
Ulster Folk and Transport Museum
1996
ISBN 0902588559

Tuesday 30 September 2008

Seamus Heaney Portrait in Bronze


Flanagan's sculpture carries on the classical tradition of western art, but his work is firmly situated in the twentieth century. The power of his representations of individuals lies in his ability to convey personality and at the same time explore possibilities of form and texture in a way which shows concern for, and delight in, the potential of bronze as a material in itself.

Jonathan Bell
© Philip Flanagan

Philip Flanagan at the Fermanagh Museum 2008






The works in this exhibition were painted between 2004 - 2008. They are based on observations of the Fermanagh Landscape. The paintings are made up of diluted washes of acrylic on primed linen and are deeply influenced by the atmosphere around my studio - the peace, the energy and the spirituality of the place.
They are impressions of many things at the same time, a synthesis between the natural world and the personal world, between landscape and inscape.