foreword by John Banville, essay by John P. O'Sullivan; interview by Oliver Sears; afterword by Theo Dorgan
ISBN 978 11910140 307 120 pages (hardback) 22.5x22.5cm 133 illus
Printmaker and painter, Stephen Lawlor is an artist whose ultimate aim is, in the words of John P. O'Sullivan, "to engender emotion through the encounter with his work; his concern is evocation rather than representation. He wants the viewer to make an emotional journey through a living environment within the realm of his canvas." Reproduced here is a remarkable range of work spanning thirty years, accompanied by essays and interview.
EXTRACTS
"Considering the paintings and prints of Stephen Lawlor, I am struck by how apposite is that notion of an art that makes visible the invisible space of air ... That world exists, in these works, in a liminal state, oddly resistant to the eye’s grasp and yet wholly pal- pable, wholly there. Gazing into one of his canvases you find your- self being drawn deep and deeper into a landscape – or a ‘landscape’ – sumptuous yet uncertain, that is at once familiar and ineffably mysterious. It is a magical, slightly eerie sensation; you seem astray in a forest, a garden, a numinously shadowed cityscape, under a turbulent gold-and-umber sky that seems more solid, more grounded, than the ground you tread on."
— from the introduction by John Banville
"There’s a Zen-like quality to the light in Stephen’s prints, the light of open mind meditation. The landscape features are invariably still, his trees particularly so, not a breath of wind to disturb our rapt contemplation. The air of serenity is both underwritten and guaranteed by the emphatic but understated mastery of tech- nique, never showy or bravura, to be enjoyed to the full for its own sake but always at the service of the image."
— from the afterword by Theo Dorgan
CONTENTS
THE LIMINAL WORLD foreword by John Banville 6
STEPHEN LAWLOR AND THE ART OF EVOCATION essay by John P O'Sullivan 10
TALKING ABOUT ART – TAKING PLEASURE IN THE PAST interview by Oliver Sears 18
