JEREMIAH HOAD | WINTER LANDSCAPE

Jeremiah Hoad was a singular artist whose paintings are a product of an intense and spiritual engagement with the landscape. Passionate about nature, he expressed sadness and anger at the treatment of the planet. Shunning modern amenities, Hoad lived a simple life and worked from his studio in Co. Donegal early in the morning until 6 or 7 o'clock in the evening, six days a week. Critical of the socio-politics of the art world, he did not much care to talk about his work; however he described his process as, 'like a meditation, sometimes so intense that I end the day not knowing how I arrived at what is on the canvas' (quoted in Gorry Gallery, Jeremiah Hoad retrospective exhibition, 2001).

Reviewing the artist, James Gorry wrote: 'Immersing himself in the countryside, he conveys to the viewer his own very personal experience at a given time – with rainbows, ‘moonbows’, sunlight and shade, rainstorms, indeed every facet of nature carefully observed and celebrated in paint.

His powerful yet sensitive expression of the phenomenon of light has a mystical, almost magical quality. The artist’s highly original painting technique, evolved over many years, with its scumbled impasto creating shimmering textured effects together with his constant search for the sublime, make his paintings somewhat unique.' (Ibid.)

His works remain relatively unknown at auction, and it is an opportunity to reassess the artist with five of his paintings included in the Collection (see lots 40, 75, 122 and 123).