Marianne O’Kane Boal welcomes a new body of work from the prolific Neil Shawcross at the Caldwell Gallery, Belfast this spring
When Matisse said in the early 20th century, ‘I want to achieve that state of condensation of sensations which makes a picture… a representation of my mind,’ those words could equally have been spoken by Neil Shawcross. Shawcross too adopts an instinctive and emotional attitude to his painting. Filmmaker, David Hammond has observed; ‘He lives in the dream of his own existence; he sees everything in the light of his own mind. His paintings need no introduction. They speak for themselves, sing out all around us, the human figure, the still life, the chair, the cup and saucer, a domestic interior, evocations of small communities.’