Nicola Gordon Bowe introduces the work of Patrick Conyngham whose latest series of paintings is currently on view at Gilford Castle, Co Down.
Patrick Conyngham has walked on the (very) wild side. The relentless odyssey of his youth pitched him into precarious states of physical and mental being, out of which he has emerged, calmer and wiser if ‘bruised and battered’, with a deep commitment to find expression through the painted image and the written word. His verses, stories and prose-poems are as integral a part of his vivid imaginary evocations as his vibrantly coloured, cloisonnist paintings on canvas and board. Here, meandering webs of flowing lines, passages of thick, choppy impasto offset with smooth undulating brushwork in warm tones of orange, lemon, crimson, scarlet, violet, jade and plum offer schematic renderings of his mind’s eye.
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