We never knew what time it was.

Artist: Jonathan Dickson
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Size: 123.5cm x 93.5cm framed

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The location of this painting is a place I spent a lot of time in with my young family over the past number of years (Donadea forest park, Kildare). The time of year of the image is exactly sundown at winter solstice, it marks the turning point of new beginnings and also a leaving behind of times past. Something we must all do, sometimes gladly, sometimes regrettably.

These memories often create strong emotional attachments to the places in which they were formed. Revisiting this place floods my head with cherished memories and the trees act almost as sentinels to this headspace. Revisiting the place separated by years can have a profound consciousness altering effect.

This painting was started more than 9 months ago and as such has its own experiences and memories locked into it, formed during the protracted painting period. In these paintings, the landscape acts as a metaphor for the cycle of experience and memory.

I’m drawn to the forest floor, the base of trees and the dead branches left behind either by stormy weather or the effects of time. They serve as metaphors for death and rejuvenation, the passing of time and what the future holds for us.

I’m enthralled by the change that takes place in a forest at sundown (the winter solstice being the most profound of these changes for me), there seems to be a dissonance between rational thought and fear of the approaching darkness as noises morph into voices and shapes anthropomorphise. It can be truly unsettling and utterly compelling at the same time.
This is part of an ongoing project using landscape as a metaphor for the human condition in the Northern Romantic tradition. I’ve been visiting 3 locations (that I have strong personal attachment to) during sundown at Winter solstice for the past number of years and the repeated visits and paintings are forming their own narrative for how I document and deal with the ever changing landscape of the experience and formation of memories.

The locations are:
Donadea Forest park, Kildare.
Castletown woods, Kildare.
Phoenix park, Dublin.

Jonathan Dickson

Born in Dublin in 1970, Jonathan is a Kildare based visual artist. After graduating from the National College of Art and Design in 1991 he went on to lead a successful career as a multi-award winning illustrator and designer. During 2006 he dedicated himself to further artistic development outside the design industry. Positive reaction to work created subsequently led him to make the decision to leave this career behind and commit full time to painting. Since then he has taken part in numerous solo and group exhibitions.

His work is held in public, corporate and private collections in Ireland, Europe and the USA. He has also been the recipient of a number of public, corporate and private commissions.

 
Artist statement

I paint and document what I experience around me (the visceral as much as the visual) as acutely as I can. Certain places and objects I experience resonate and won’t let me go until I work through them, sometimes I know why during the process and sometimes the obsession is revealed afterwards. I’m ever increasingly aware that hindsight reveals far more about my work than anything I could ever conceive up front and I’m happy to allow this to continue (for now). Allied to this I have a deep curiosity about the nature of perception and memory (both visual and conceptual) and how it affects the subjects that call to me.