Metamorphosis

Exhibition Notes by Desmond MacAvock

Padraic Reaney has long been fascinated by life in nature; hitherto principally that of birds, even to the extent of having at the back of his house in Moycullen an aviary, which is frequently availed of by their guardians as a haven at which the injuries are nurtured back again to enjoy their freedom in the wild.

Recently he has become intrigued and ultimately fascinated by the life cycle of bees and wasps which starts in the chrysalis and progress to construct a community, the process of which in form and colour, shape and flight and texture have generated a whole new emphasis in his art.

But as we would expect from a painter of such sensitive response, the paintings and drawings that he has made of this other world are not merely investigative or exploratory. Rather they are the deeply imaginative creative response to observation and insight, familiarity and ever increasing intimacy. We won't learn more about the anatomy or even appearance of bees in these works, rather we will have the sensitive absorption into his iconography and personal expression of this fresh interest and observation.

In fact this new series is a wonderful example of the way a new subject can enrich an artist's oeuvre. He has given the title 'Metamorphosis' to this series of works, and the aptness of this is actually many faceted, for while there is the observation process of this in the chrysalis, swarm, nest and so on, there is also the extraordinary deepening and extension of his own world of his personal expression. The addition of new figures and forms, new reference shapes and colours has made for a complex enrichment of his work with its ever more imaginative creative response to the fascination and deepened insight into this microcosm of instinct and ordained cycles of birth, efflorescence and death.

Desmond MacAvock