Estuary, 1995

Artist Felim Egan (1952 - 2020)

Date1995

MediumAcrylic and wax on canvas

Dimensions194 x 253 x 20 cm

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Purchased, 1998. © The Estate of Felim Egan.

Object number1952

DescriptionFelim Egan began his art training at Ulster Polytechnic before moving on to study at the Slade, London. He won a scholarship to attend The British School in Rome in the late 1970s. Throughout his artistic life, Egan has mainly produced minimalist abstract works. He claims that his greatest influences have been Russian Constructivism and Kandinsky. His painterly vocabulary comprises the line and the curve, harmonised and balanced with meticulous care. In a pure mathematical sense, a line should be a thin invisible strip joining two points while in Egan's paintings it becomes a solid object. From a distance the lines appear smooth, however, on closer examination they become sculptural with their rough undulating edges. Egan's use of such basic pictorial elements his paintings a primitive quality, similar to the first human art, imbued with a sense of mystery and harking back to the dawning of creativity. The sea green background combined with the brushstrokes and wax creates the impression of an aerial view of an estuary as fresh water mixes with the sea. The lines appear like isolated boats approaching a pier and the coloured circles act as buoys bobbing about in a vast expanse, helping to guide the boats across the canvas.

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