Fiach McGuinne

MacDara, 2022 

Oil and acrylic on canvas, Unframed: 60 x 80 cm 

‘Historically, portrait paintings depicted the rich and powerful, often clothed or surrounded by luxurious fabric. I was thinking of that when I painted MacDara. I bought beautiful fabric, extended it over a stretcher, sized and gessoed it. The excess fabric flows over the edges of the stretcher. MacDara, my little brother, is neither rich nor powerful. He’s just a young boy walking through an ancient oak forest in Mayo (his name, aptly, means ‘son of oak’). He has turned to look back at me. I have recorded a moment in his time in the slow technology of paint.’

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