Ensconced in his Aix-en-Provence studio, the Irish-American artist continues exploring the meanders of the abstract art that has been his trademark for over 50 years.
A show at the Ropac Gallery in Pantin, which ends September 30, highlights his ability to go beyond appearances and paint emotions steeped in references.
Since 2021, the painter and sculptor, who also has studios in New York, London and Mooseurach in Bavaria, has been based in an elegant building nestling in the heart of a ten-hectare (nearly 25 acres) park a few miles from the center of Aix-en-Provence. The dashing septuagenarian, born in Dublin and a naturalized American citizen, established his Provencal studio on the second and top floor of a mansion situated amidst pines, cypresses and an olive grove boasting over a thousand trees. In one of the three servants’ rooms, which comes with a fireplace, small finished paintings and ready-to-use copper and aluminum supports hang on the walls. A few splashes of color and, on a table, buckets filled with paint-laden brushes and spatulas are tell-tale signs that the artist has just been here. "I dabbled in a bit of everything before becoming a painter,” said the hard-boiled, fighting-fit man as he stretched back on a sofa. “At first life was pretty tough. I worked in a printing shop, in construction, in factories... And then, I can't say why, I studied philosophy, English literature and art history, almost viscerally, at night in England. This got me into the Croydon College of Art in London. Originally…
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