Crimson Canopy
About the work
Crimson Canopy emerged from the same emotional territory as Under a Blood Red Sky and Blue River Under a Red Sky. I was thinking about histories that do not settle easily, and the way certain images return before we fully understand why. Here, the red moves beyond atmosphere. It presses down upon the figures like a sky carrying more than weather.
While making Crimson Canopy, I was thinking about how histories of conflict in Ireland and Palestine are carried by people who did not begin them but continue to live beneath their consequences. The painting grew from this idea of inherited memory – the way conflict, loss and endurance can remain embedded in people and place long after the original events have passed.
The figures gather beneath the red canopy without a clear narrative or destination. They appear connected yet psychologically separate, their forms partly absorbed into the surrounding surface. Their awkwardness and vulnerability are intentional. I recognise something of myself in them, but I do not want their experience to be fixed as mine alone..
The painting remains unresolved. Its layers do not offer an explanation or resolution, but hold a sense of people continuing beneath the weight of what has been inherited.
Artwork details
2026
Acrylic, plaster, silicone and mesh on canvas
80 × 60 cm