Rosie McGurran, Suaimhness 2, painting, 28 x 21 cm (43.5 x 37 x 2.5 framed)

Further information

Artist's commentary about this work: I am fascinated by the work of Ithell Colqhoun, an English surrealist artist whose work is now being celebrated at Tate Britain more than thirty years after her death. Colqhoun spent a period of time in Roundstone in the 1950s which she excellently recalls in her book The Crying of the Wind. She captures a time now lost in the history of the village, she writes of conversations about folklore and luxuriates in the quietness of nature. She writes, 'There is nothing pleasanter than to lie on a hill in the hollow behind a rock or in a nook of the half tropical shrubbery and gaze at the foreground of heathland and scattered boulders. Where better can one indulge the longing for tranquillity, for no mechanical noise will break the peace of bog and sky... The Gaelic word suaimhness expresses luxuriating in quiet'. My work sets out to reflect this idea of "suiamhness" a time of simple engagement with nature and appreciation of the natural riches of our environment. 

Rosie McGurran is a member of the Royal Ulster Academy and an award-winning painter. Her work draws upon stories and histories of Roundstone (in the West of Ireland) and Belfast, as well as autobiographical elements. Yet, her paintings are never completely true representations of events, people, places or memories, but the real world co-exists and blends with an imagined one

Find out more about Rosie McGurran and her work on the artist's page.