SOME of these paintings, have been seen already at Eigse Carlow, where collectively they created a strong impression even though they constituted only one exhibition there among many. Together they compose a kind of sequence or "suite" and seem to relate to a single theme or underlying experience, though without being in any way repetitious. This is - as I had guessed in Carlow, and is confirmed by the brief catalogue note - the kind of depersonalised suburban environment which surrounds modern cities.
It is not one of garden suburbs or leafy orchards; it is the partly industrialised, partly residential landscape we all know, made up of housing and industrial estates and big, impersonal motorways with noisily speeding traffic. In turn, the motifs are painted in a swift, blurry, cursive manner as though viewed in transit from a passing train or bus. The treatment is broad and generalised, with fluent and sometimes sweeping brushstrokes almost in the Abstract Expressionist manner. Throughout there is a strong tonal bias towards black and white, amounting in some cases almost to chiaroscuro.
The big diptych Through Snow stands outside the sequence, both in format and in scale. Faintly recalling Franz Kline, it is starkly black and white - not black on white - and has an aggressive energy, yet is short of real originality. The low, horizontal format of the other works - painted on the contemporary equivalent of two-by-four boards - is part of their impact, which is direct and immediate. This is strong, honest painting with something personal to say.