A fresh canvas
The Interview
Olof Gill
olofgill@mayonews.ie
DERMOT Seymour first came to Mayo for the fishing. An avid inshore fisherman, he took the bus from his native Belfast in the early 1980s and found himself in Newport. “It was a very hot summer, and during the day while I was wandering around Newport, there was a jamboree on. There was a raffle at the jamboree, which I entered and won, and the first prize was a bullock. Now, the bullock was no use to me at the time – how could I get a bullock back across the border to Belfast?” Laughter rings around the wide spaces of their home.
Though he could not bring the bullock in its physical entity across the border (he was offered a cash prize instead), its image would linger in the artist’s mind, becoming a staple feature of his iconic 1980s work. These paintings frequently juxtaposed animals – expressive cattle, ogling sheep, harrowed hares and omniscient owls – with grim depictions of the social realities of troubles-era Northern Ireland.
Thus reminiscing, Dermot pours the tea while Alice serves up home-baked scones. We are sitting around the kitchen table of their house, an extraordinary structure sitting on four acres of riverside meadow in the townland of Cloonee, in the village of Partry. The house, a wonderful asymmetry of bright airy spaces, contains two cavernous art studios, one for each half of this über-artistic union.
Alice Maher grew up in Cahir, County Tipperary and wisps of her native accent occasionally permeate her speech. Dermot’s accent, meanwhile, remains resolutely northern, with softly-uttered Belfast inflections. Having exhibited between them, quite literally, all over the world, what made them choose Mayo as the centre of their artistic universe? Neither of them paints landscapes, after all.
Dermot first moved to Mayo in the early 1990s and lived in Lecanvey and Islandeady before settling with Alice in Cloonee. Getting out of the North offered a strong sense of release – ‘going into the west was like getting out’ he says. Having lived in a place where borders featured so prominently, he was captivated by the different types of borders in Mayo – the border between land and sea, between villages and townlands and fields. Alice, too, is very happy in Mayo, though she retains a certain playful amazement at the fact that she is living in the countryside once more. “I ran away from the country when I was young,” she explains, “ I saw it as horrible and boring.”
She never expected to return to country living, let alone country living in Mayo. And yet, in some respects, her life has come full circle: “I would always have thought of Mayo as wild and bleak, but then you come here and you realise it’s like a country of its own.”
What sets Mayo apart, then? “Big skies,” they answer simultaneously. “Skies, big skies, the light.” They have found in Mayo the perfect physical and mental space in which to paint, sculpt and create. And they are certainly creating – both artists have worked constantly since the house was completed last September. As we are talking, the crunch of tyres on gravel is heard outside, and a large Fed-Ex van pulls up to the house. Alice fills out a form and carries out a painting bound for her upcoming exhibition in Dublin. “There is a constant flow of vans in and out of here,” explains Dermot. The availability of such modern facilities (the house, for example has full broadband connection) means the artists can remain connected to the wider world while also having the space and time to focus on their work. Alice is working towards a show in Dublin’s RHA Gallery, while Dermot will be exhibiting at the forthcoming Galway Arts Festival.
Is living in Mayo having an influence on their work? It’s not as simple as that, says Dermot. “These things don’t happen overnight.” As neither artist paints traditional landscapes, there is no immediately obvious connection between their recent work and their new home. Dermot explains that these types of changes happen organically, by osmosis, seeping into the artistic mindscape.
“It’s a different set of circumstances. When I first came down here, I was renowned for painting helicopters, and the reason for that was because they were always in the sky in Northern Ireland. Down here you don’t see too many, and those you do see belong to the new rich, not the army!”
How, then, do they view the current political developments in the North? Alice, who also lived and studied in Northern Ireland, mentions that they follow events closely and return regularly to Belfast. Dermot, who like anyone of his generation growing up in Belfast, witnessed violence and terror as a matter of course, believes the North is changing for the better. “I think they’ve grown out of it – hopefully,” he says sardonically. “It was something that probably had to happen, it did happen, and now that’s it. Time to move on.”
These days, Dermot’s work focuses more on animals, less on helicopters and paramilitary grafitti. He is, essentially, painting what’s around him. The cows remain ubiquitous, but a greater spectrum of animals has entered his art. It is understandable – foxes and wild deer often roam the meadows by their house, perhaps hoping to become models for his latest oeuvre.
Dermot’s work has often been described as ‘subverting our traditional depiction of animals’. The creatures in his later work, starkly set against smouldering, looming backgrounds seem at once knowing and haunted.
Alice, meanwhile, is working on a set of large charcoal pieces, remarkable silhouette scenes under the working title of ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’. These images seduce and mystify, in much the same way as the early 16th Century painting (of the same name) from which much of their creative impetus is derived. The air in both studios hums with ideas, fragments of creativity, smithereens of knowledge. This is a place where you sense many disparate thoughts will be captured in various forms and media.
Both artists seem quietly delighted to have their own private workspace after years of meandering. They are taken, too, by the sense of community they have discovered in the Partry area. Above all, they seem content to have created a nucleus for their lives, both personal and professional.
“It’s a very busy life, making the work,” says Alice, “and it’s brilliant here, you don’t get disturbed. Space is very important, not just where you work but all around you. There’s a lot of room to think here.”
Dermot still fishes a lot, making regular trips to Lough Mask and Lough Corrib. One of their greatest pleasures is to have friends over for trout dinners, and they insist that the trout from different lakes can be completely different in taste and appearance. Artistic licence, no doubt…
For now, they intend to keep working and creating, finding their feet in their new surroundings, and enjoying the space and light their new environment affords them.
