Steve McGuinness Artist Statement

The work relates to the idea of capturing a ' sense of place' . It connects with the Celtic tradition of ' Thin places'. This tradition describes heaven and earth existing three feet apart. It is in these thin places that this distance becomes smaller still. It is an idea that resonates with me as I search for places where I feel this very thin divide between the past, presenting future. We all have these special places, whether it is a beach walked upon a thousand times or our own garden. The paintings are intended to communicate expression of this spiritual connection with our environment, attached to both a feeling and a landscape. They respond to memory and to the contrasting spatial elements of the landscape, both seen and felt.