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
![](https://markainsworthartist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Mark-Ainsworths-painting-Crucible-Belfast-College-of-Art-2010-1-scaled.jpg)
“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.