Fingal Municipal Art Collection - Kathy Tynan, New Here Again, 2016, oil on canvas

Kathy Tynan, New Here Again, 2016, oil on canvas

The title and imagery of this painting feels especially appropriate for these Covid days when we are all exploring our immediate surroundings – often seeing them with fresh eyes to even the smallest changes. Is this site familiar to you? It is a crossroads in the Coombe in Dublin 8 with its Sacred Heart Shrine. Tynan says the title of the painting was inspired by a song and its message of “the never-ending possibility of beginning again.” We can see the Shrine in the very centre of the painting with one grey-haired passer-by and the tip of a black parked car off to the right. The sky is shifting between blue and white and delicate branches of a blossoming tree frame the piece and add a sense of distance – with a distinct foreground where the blossoms reach in, the mid-ground with the Shrine and houses and then the sky in the distance. How might this layering of distances affect the composition?

What kind of atmosphere does it have for you? On the left of the canvas we can see a ‘do not enter’ sign. Why might Tynan have included this? She mentions that the grey-haired pedestrian and the cherry blossoms stood out for her. Do these factors and the shifting sky suggest ephemerality to you – something fleeting? If so, how do you think she feels about this? Happy, sad, accepting? Her title gives us a good hint!

Looking at the brushstrokes, can you tell if they were done quickly or slowly? How does the motion of the brushwork add to a feeling of movement, even though we are looking at solid things such as a statue and buildings?

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Activity:

Materials needed: paper, scissors, adhesive, drawing or painting media

To make your own artwork, inspired by this piece, you could gather a few images –  photographs with your phone or quick sketches. The panorama setting on a phone camera would be great for this exercise. Looking at your series of images, construct a linked set of drawings or photographs in a concertina folded book to tell a story of your street or neighbourhood. You could do this as drawings, paintings or collages – perhaps a series of images of houses from a newspaper.

The idea is to chart a journey of some kind through your own walking/recording. You might choose something abstract to focus on – a collection of marks such as the cracks/stains/drips you can see on a short walk. Or if you are cocooning, look out your window and do a series of drawings or photographs from the farthest left to farthest right-hand side. Or a series of images of the changing sky like Tynan’s.

To link the images, fold 3-4 (or more!) sheets of whatever size paper suits in half. Then simply tape or use Pritt to affix the pages together, overlapping by about 1cm at the seams.