Review
Cloch ar Cloch

Screig Gallery's "Cloch ar Cloch" exhibition ushers in a change in our
artistic view of the Donegal landscape, and it is likely to be a
long-lasting and profound change.
The title literally means "Stone on stone," and features paintings by Celine
McGlynn along with sculptures by Mary McGinty. And it is the restrictions
inherent in the title – not too great a burden for a sculptor, but how to
produce an entire painting sequence based on stones? – which has spurred
those two experienced artists to open a new door.
The Stones theme has inspired Celine to render our landscape as we actually
see it, day to day, moment to moment. We do not, often, stand in high places
to view the sweep of Altnapeiste or Gaugin. But we glimpse little slices of
the landscape, through the car window or the spaces between buildings, or in
miniature as we look out our front doors or step between rocks to paddle in
the sea.
It is this stream-of-consciousness landscape which Celine Mcglynn
celebrates, even as she tackles apparently "large" themes such as Beltany
Stone Circle and the Giants Causeway. Rather than giving us a panoramic
sweep on a large canvas, she takes us right in, and concentrates on one or
two person-sized features, which one might encounter at a particular moment
while walking through.
One surprising result is that the paintings become a riot of colour. Artists
who set themselves Donegal as a theme fret for colour and will wait for
haymaking season or a torrid sunset, when not actually shoving in
rhododendrons which weren't there. Celine McGlynn demonstrates that there is
a great deal of colour close up, in withering vegetation, in lichens, and
most surprisingly of all, in the rocks themselves.
Many of those colours are at the warm end of the colour spectrum. The stones
of Beltany and the Giant's Causeway glow with russets, ochre and red. "River
Rocks," a depiction of the few feet of riverside one would face when picking
up a stone, has as much colour in its sedges and mosses as Monet ever
crammed into his famous gardens.
Even "Altnapeiste" and "Gaugin" pulse with the colours of the microhabitat.
Glance out of the window of the Screig Gallery at the mountains opposite,
and you see them with renewed eyes, glowing with colour despite their
towering, forbidding structure.
The three Inishowen seascapes are also evocatively close-ups, although they
depend as much on Ms McGlynn's composition techniques as her eye for colour
to achieve their sense of movement. Quite apart from the insights on colour
and mini landscape, this collection is technically brilliant, and can
compare with the best of work ever done on Donegal.
Mary McGinty, too, has highlighted colour in her latest works. Resisting the
obvious temptation to work on the large scale with her pieces of granite and
limestone, she has kept her sculptures relatively small, more or less
coffee-table size, which vividly brings out the grainy colour and texture
contrasts of her raw materials. It is the kind of area often addressed,
badly, in small display boxes for tourists - but Mary McGinty develops the
theme, and raises it to fine art.
Early man tried to find some immortality by carving images of himself and
his heroes and gods in stone, and Mary McGinty is consciously on the same
track. "Warrior Head," and "Totem Birds" could have been carved at any time
or place in human history, and represent another wave in the human quest for
permanent meanings.
Two collections, one of which draws awareness of landscape colour and
movement to the human spirit, and the other projecting that spirit into the
eternal timelessness of the same landscape. This will prove to be an
important collection.

Reviewed by Pat Holland

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