Crossing the Westlink oil on canvas “48 x 48’

I use this painting as the key work for the period in my life described as the Years of Consolidation only because it was the largest painting I produced in this time. I was working full time as a Medical Artist in the Royal Victoria Hospital Belfast and because this was a fairly intense learning experience I discovered that time in my studio at home was limited and my normal output was low compared to previous years. The disciplines involved in producing medical art were such that I was forced to rethink my own studio processes and eventually decided to concentrate on allowing both ways of working to find their own common ground. Most of the paintings of this time are portraits of my wife and children and a few frank self portraits. The portrait forces an artist to look a lot harder at his subject and not accept errors in drawing or tone and colour. The work I produced as a Medical Artist could not have inaccuracies or slapdash solutions so this daily discipline found its way into my portraits and other work at home. Even though my completed works for this period were small in number I realised that I had moved forward dramatically in my journey as an artist.