Cityscapes

Mixed Media

These select drawings and paintings are part of an ongoing exploration of the wonderment of cities. Many are made during travels and through the return to places we call home - in my case Sligo in the West of Ireland and the cities of the Middle East. Drawing cities and teaching the History of Cities at the Libyan International University of Benghazi are key inspirations and muses for the propositional design work undertaken by the studio.

Although painted over twenty years, there are recurring themes and a specificity to the tool of painting in engaging with the city. The Swiss artist Paul Klee is an obvious and recurrent inspiration - for his layering of architecture, material, colour and composition - often within a North African backdrop which I also share.
The series of watercolours are part travelogue, part design process: studies that inform the studio’s architectural work, as much as they stand as artworks on their own. John Singer Sargent is a continual 'go to' reference, both for the excitement he captures when painting cities, his love of Italian and Mediterranean subjects, and for the way he combines architecture and backdrop.

Finally, the last series of Sligo owes its inspiration to the works of one of our favourite references in the studio - Edward Hopper. They are rarely just straight depictions, for the architect is ever propositional with his choice of lines. At times the atmosphere turns dark - such as the charcoal drawings of my Catholic boarding school as a teenager or the town as viewed on the way to the local library. They hold an ominous presence, but are also sometimes very playful. Such ambiguities lie at the heart of my continual fascination with the city.