’Autumn in the Waterworks’ oil on canvas 60”x 48”

Having produced a considerable body of work during the years 2000 - 2010 mostly on themes based on hospital life I decided that the time had come to consider retiring from my day job as a Medical artist. I knew that this would not be easy to adjust to, having spent 32 years learning and developing an art practice that was totally different to my vision of the artist struggling in his studio to make a living and become well known. However part of that learning process was realising that art is an adaptable skill and can work well in many situations. So when I turned 60 I moved forward with much experience to tackle the original idea of the independent practising artist. Deprived of my subject matter in the hospital that had inspired me for the previous decade I now looked closer to home in North Belfast for similar inspiration. Initially I continued to work on small hospital paintings but eventually I discovered the people and places of North Belfast and ideas began to flow. This large painting is my key work for this period because although it deals with a particular place, a certain time of year and a person, dog and birds I know very well it is the large scale and the amount of time it took to complete that make it such an important work. In fact it took four years on and of to complete and this for me was a totally different experience. Normally I work fast and even my large paintings as a student would usually take no more than a month. However because of several unexpected incidents during the first few years of my retirement, the sudden death of a younger brother and then illness and eventual death of both my parents, my studio work was haphazard and difficult to control. This big painting helped me to deal with the bereavements and showed me that good work can take a long time to master. Since then my work patterns are much more considered and reflective and I can allow ideas to change sometimes quite radically in the course of my attempts to create satisfactory work.