Lisburn artist reveals inspiration behind new exhibition

Colin’s work is currently featured in the Tom Caldwell Gallery on Belfast’s Lisburn Road as part of the ‘At Home’ series, which continues until Sunday.

Speaking to the Star about the inspiration behind some of his work, Colin revealed that it was his father’s missionary work in China, and his ultimate flight from the country as World War II broke out, that is the driving force behind several paintings.

Colin said: “Some of the paintings derive from photographs which I saw recently of the interior of a Chinese Prison in the years following the Cultural Revolution.

“During the 1930s and early 40s my father worked as a Christian missionary for the Irish Presbyterian Church in Manchuria, North China. This prison had originally been a gymnasium in the YMCA mission where my father had been a pastor and teacher in Moukden (present day Shenyang). Only lately we learned that this same place which at one time had been a refuge for sport and relaxation in my father’s time had later become a place of intense fear, tension and psychological suffering for many including Chinese Christian’s during and since the Mao-tse-tung era.

“After 55 years of Government control the building has recently been handed back to the church and will be preserved as a prison museum.

“These are not paintings that would seek to illustrate or depict this particular place but rather they are intended to encapture something of the mood, the menace of its history and the integrity of memory.”

The local man has been a regular exhibitor with the Tom Caldwell Gallery for fifteen years, where he has had four successful one person shows.

The exhibition will continue until Sunday (May 27) from 10am-5pm (Monday-Saturday) and 2pm-5pmon Sunday.

Colin said he has used items such as sand, clay and metal as part of his ‘Ground Work’ exhibition, in order to incorporate items which come from the earth or ground and given them a new lease of life.

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