Sailing to Byzantium
Bangor Carnegie Library | All day | Free
Tue 5 Sep – Fri 29 Sep
Mark Ainsworth’s Sailing to Byzantium exhibition is named after the painting of the same name. It is not a direct influence of the W. B. Yeat’s poem but a visual response to the underlying themes of transformation and spirituality in the poem Sailing to Byzantium. A poem that has resonated with Mark for many years. The creative journey undertaken in the process of painting is echoed in the poem’s metaphorical journey.
Aspects 2023
Magnum Opus
81x101cm
2023
Painting for Charlotte
180x80cm
2021
The Alchemist’s Dream
76x86cm
2016
The Emperors Garden
47x51cm
2018
Nocturne No. 1
41x48cm
2015
Symbols of Alchemy
40x50cm
2022
Nocturne No. 2
41x48cm
2014
The Emperors Garden
72x77cm
2017
“For me research is never the starting point for my creative output, it is my imagination and the way I can find a relationship between the things that previously did not exist.”
The idea that painting is as much about the application, being in the studio, cleaning brushed, good preperation and having a critical eye. In the end I wish to engage the senses to create a contemplative piece of art that is caught between a representational image and abstract form.
Within this balancing act care is taken to maintain a dialogue between message and medium. The important thing about any form of creative activity is to accept risk taking as an integral part of the creative process; if it does not work then I try again.