Page 4 - Essay Awakenings Reloaded by Paul McCloskey

The Landscape itself is important to me in this series and the visual
influence is determined by the surrounding landscape of my environment, but

its intention is primarily as a catalyst in expressing divinity and is therefore
secondary to this expression, it’s my intention to evoke a sense of spirit, of
enormity through the ethereal and tactile qualities of the paint and aiming to
suggest the vastness of

landscape, both earth
and sky, matter and
space as the catalyst in

which to express this
sense of spirit, as
indeed was the work of

the great British
romantic painter

Fig 1. Landscape with Prussian. Oil on Canvas. 183cm X 91cm Turner, where he used
landscape as an
arbitrator to the realisation of the divine. His subject matter could generally not
be regarded as spiritual and especially religious, yet he sought to express the
power of the divine, the ethereal spirit in landscape. His visionary analysis of

landscape for which he became so well respected as one of the greatest romantic
interpreters of nature, in particular his unrivalled ability of his painting of light.

Turner was striving for expression of
spirituality in his works, rather than
responding just to what he saw. Mark
Rothko’s later abstract works

recurrently consist of floating
rectangles of shimmering colour on
large canvases that manage to

simultaneously convey a deep
sensuality and a profound

spirituality. Showing that subject Fig 1a. Landscape with Prussian .Detail
matter although relevant particularly

at the early stages or beginning of the painting, quickly become secondary to the
process. Sean Scully suggests this weighting in ‘Resistance and persistence
selected writings’ when he says; ‘Art does not need to make sense or to function
or to demonstrate any particular idea. It testifies to the beauty of imperfect

human thought and action muddled up with feeling.’ (2006, p.6)