Northern Ireland

The subject of Forster’s work in Northern Ireland centres on the volcanic rock formation known as the Giant’s Causeway.  Designated a world heritage site in 1986, the geometric wonder of the world, forms the primary theme to this wonderful work.  Forster’s main preoccupation with this scene lies in the sky’s is reflection in the sea and the resulting union between the two.  Forster contrasts the strict geometry of the rocks with the natural beauty of the scene; allowing the clouds to take on a more fluid, less regimented form.  The palette is again, very restricted, as the cool magenta hues of the stone, give way to something more natural in the cliffs behind them.
Forster sees ‘the vantage point in this painting as being very important. It is the view from the end of the causeway looking back on the journey.  It is a sea level view almost like being in a boat. For those who have been there it is not hard to forget the experience of clambering over the basalt columns with the sea pounding away at your feet.  It is easy to imagine being swept away.

A theme with all the coastal paintings is this intense interaction between the sea and the land; coast lines are dynamic, changing environments, they are at the will of the sea. However, the causeway is particularly stubborn; the hardiness of the rock has to a large extent weathered the advances of the sea very well. I wanted to contrast this hard foreground with the more gentle soft tones of the hillside. These elements, in addition to the sweeping waves, queue up to hammer the causeway and give great sense of motion to the composition.

The basalt columns in themselves were a challenge to construct and paint the necessary geometry within the constraints of the Ubertechnique. I used the fact that they were wet with sea-spray alongside a glaring sun to portray the white needed to enable the painting to take place. It was the most technically challenging of all the collection pieces.

One of Northern Ireland’s most famous sons is the Nobel Prize winning author, Seamus Heaney, who perfectly sums up the unique landscape of Northern Ireland, “Our unfenced country, is bog that keeps crusting, between the sights of the sun”.