The Islandman asks a Question. 9 December 2009. Acrylic and ink on paper, approx. 140mm x 190mm

Paradise

Under the Frown of Night. 8 December 2009. Acrylic and ink on paper, approx. 140mm x 190mm

Satan walks in the garden, wearing a 1960's crash helmet and leathers. Milton foresees light pollution and global warming:
Starless expos'd, and ever-threatning storms [ 425 ]
Of Chaos blustring round, inclement skie
See also Tuesday March 10, 2009

Ghost Family

He's Above Us. 8 December 2009. Acrylic and ink on paper, approx. 140mm x 190mm

Looking Down/Body Above. 8 December 2009. Acrylic and ink on paper, approx. 140mm x 190mm

She's Waiting - Mother. 9 December 2009. Acrylic and ink on paper, approx. 140mm x 190mm

He's Waiting - Father. 8 December 2009. Acrylic and ink on paper, approx. 140mm x 190mm

In The Hedge. 9 December 2009. Acrylic and ink on paper, approx. 140mm x 190mm

An Angel. Acrylic, ink and pencil on paper, approx. 190mm x 140mm

It is important to have a secret, a premonition of things unknown. It fills life with something impersonal... A man who has never experienced that has missed something important. He must sense that he lives in a world which in some respects is mysterious; that things happen and can be experienced which remain inexplicable; that not everything which happens can be anticipated. The unexpected and the incredible belong in this world.
C.G. Jung Memories, Dreams, Reflections

In the Fields. Army marching towards us, April 2009

Page from sketchbook, May 1999. Moonmen

Shadow

Woman with satellite dish

Shadow

Spikey Abbess 1, 24 March 2009, ink and pencil on paper, 140mm X 189mm

Spikey Abbess 2, 24 March 2009, ink and pencil on paper, 140mm X 189mm

Lacking cities, Ireland didn't quite see the point of bishops, and gradually these were replaced in importance by abbots and – in a development that would make any self-respecting Roman's blood run cold – abbesses...(Brigid)... ruled as high abbess of an immense double monastery – that is, a foundation that admitted both men and women, another irregularity that would have deeply offended Roman Catholic sensibility, which to this day imagines rule by a woman over men as a perversion of the natural order....She is reputed to have taken the veil on the hill of Uisnech, Ireland's primeval naval and the mythical centre of its cosmic mandala.
Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization

The Dark

Two Figures, 18 August 2008. Ink and pencil on paper, 285mm x 380mm

Shadow

Here Walked The Fiend, 10 March 2009
acrylic and ink on paper, approx 140mm x 189mm

Mean while upon the firm opacous Globe
Of this round World, whose first convex divides
The luminous inferior Orbs, enclos'd [ 420 ]
From Chaos and th' inroad of Darkness old,
Satan alighted walks: a Globe farr off
It seem'd, now seems a boundless continent
Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of Night
Starless expos'd, and ever-threatning storms [ 425 ]
Of Chaos blustring round, inclement skie;
Save on that side which from the wall of Heav'n
Though distant farr some small reflection gaines
Of glimmering air less vext with tempest loud:
Here walk'd the Fiend at large in spacious field. [ 430 ]

John Milton, Paradise Lost, book III

The Dark

Body-Part-Hidden, 1 March 2009
acrylic and ink on paper, approx 189mm x 140mm

Paradise

A Serpent Armed with Mortal Sting, 1 March 2009
acrylic and ink on paper, approx 189mm x 140mm

Shadow

Spikey Boy, 25 January, 2006
acrylic on paper, approx 205mm x 297mm

Paradise

The World Was All Before Them.
The expulsion from the garden, when Adam and Eve chose knowledge over obedience and become our first parents. 28 January/26 February 2009. Acrylic and ink on paper, approx 190mm x 275mm

The Cherubim descended; on the ground
Gliding meteorous, as evening-mist
Risen from a river o'er the marish glides,
And gathers ground fast at the labourer's heel
Homeward returning. High in front advanced,
The brandished sword of God before them blazed,
Fierce as a comet; which with torrid heat,
And vapour as the Libyan air adust,
Began to parch that temperate clime; whereat
In either hand the hastening Angel caught
Our lingering parents, and to the eastern gate
Led them direct, and down the cliff as fast
To the subjected plain; then disappeared.
They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld
Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,
Waved over by that flaming brand; the gate
With dreadful faces thronged, and fiery arms:
Some natural tears they dropt, but wiped them soon;
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide:
They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.

final lines from John Milton's Paradise Lost

The Wall of the Garden, Night. Here we are looking back at the east wall as it would have looked to the first couple as they left the garden. 19 February 2009, Acrylic and ink on paper, approx 189mm x 140mm


The Wall of The Garden of Eden, Night. Here we see the east wall (covered in tendrils and vines) as it would have looked to our first parents. 19 February 2009, acrylic and ink on paper, approx 189mm x 140mm

Rock

Stone, 19 February 2009
acrylic and ink on paper, 188mm x 140mm

Shadow

The Shape Became The Ferryman, 12 February 2009
Acrylic and ink, 187mm x 141mm

The dark

The state of a mind oppressed with a sudden calamity ... is like that of the fabulous inhabitants of the new-created earth, who, when the first night came upon them, supposed that day would never return. When the clouds of sorrow gather over us, we see nothing beyond them, nor can imagine how they will be dispelled: yet a new day succeeded the night, and sorrow is never long without a dawn of ease. But they who restrain themselves from receiving comfort do as the savages would have done, had they put out their eyes when it was dark.
Samuel Johnson: Rasselas

Shadow

Hill Man, 20 May 2000

Shadow

Oisín, 22 January 2009

Shadow

Something in the hedge, 10 February 2009

Night

Night Trees at Lissyclearig, 27 January 2009

Shadow

Still Life With Face, 27 January 2009

Trees above Lissaniska, east of Lissyclearig, 20 September 2008

In the Fields, 26 January 2009

Moon at Gortamullin, 20 May 2000

Day

Tree Below Strickeen, 20 May 2000

Night

House 6, 8 January 2009

House 5, 8 January 2009

House 4, 8 January 2009

House 3, 8 January 2009

House 2, 8 January 2009

House 1, 1 November 2008

House, 1 November 2008

In looking at objects of Nature while I am thinking, as at yonder moon dim-glimmering thro' the dewy window-pane, I seem rather to be seeking, as it were asking, a symbolic language for something within me that already and forever exists, than observing anything new. Even when that latter is the case, yet still I have always an obscure feeling as if that new phenomenon were the dim Awaking of a forgotten or hidden truth of my inner nature...

From the notebooks of Samuel Taylor Coleridge