RSA Scottish Art
Rocks and Tower, Ireland’s Eye
 | Artist: Philip Reeves |
| Title: Rocks and Tower, Ireland’s Eye | |
| Year: c. 1965 | |
| Medium: gouache on paper | |
| Dimensions: | |
| Suggested topic: | |
| Source: RSA | |
| View full screen image of this work | |
| Open print version of this work | |
| © the artist | |
| Description: Philip Reeves has been influential in the revival of printmaking in Scotland since the 1970s and is also a painter whose main source of inspiration is the land.This painting, Rocks and Tower, Ireland's Eye, which at first seems to be quite abstract, is based upon a specific site in Ireland - on the rocky coast at Howth, just outside Dublin. A castle is suggested through the grey colours of the masonry and the scraped outlines of a parapet. Around this are the rich green colours of well-watered Irish grass and the heavy greyness of rocks and sky. The repeating square motif around the castle suggests fields or farm walls with their characteristic patchwork appearance.The painting has been executed with a variety of different paint applications. Some areas have been applied smoothly with a brush; other more thickly applied areas have been finished with a palette knife, while some broken areas of white have been lightly applied with a dry brush. The palette is very limited in terms of colour, confined to greys, shades of a cool green, white and a little black. Tonally the image is very uniform and sits in the middle of the range. The mood of the picture suggests a place where weather dominates your experience of the landscape. The limited tonal range is reminiscent of the light on a misty day, when little colour can be noted and light and shade are hard to discern. The verdant green and the stony greys represent a place where the modern world has yet to impose itself. Reeves has made an abstract rendering of this place, and although we do not take away an accurate view of the appearance of the place, it is possible to gain an understanding of its feel and the sombre atmosphere on a cool, wintry day near the sea. | |
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