THE ARTIST
One Dark Night, 1987 - acrylic on canvas, 24 x 18 in, 61 x 45.7 cm
Description: This is my first painting, painted one dark night up in the Hollywood Hills. My wife Cassie had been fighting ovarian cancer for the past year. It was a painful time. I had bought myself an easel, brushes, and paints many years before which had lain dormant under the staircase. At four in the morning on this dark night, I painted this portrait with my fingers.
Where It Started, 1987 - acrylic on canvas, 24 x 18 in, 61 x 45.7 cm
Description: The next night I painted this figure. As a child in Ireland, I would have dreams filled with abstract shapes.
Self Fish, 1987 - acrylic on canvas, 36 x 24 in, 91.4 x 61 cm
Description: I stole the stars from Vincent, the shape of the mirror hung on the wall and this is what I saw. I loved that crazy shirt and wore the cross a long time. The fishes hung in the balcony of my studio. I had bought dozens in Mexico.
Cassie at Red-Tails, 1988 - acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 in, 121.9 x 91.4 cm
Description: From a photograph taken of Cassie in the pool at “Red Tails” in Malibu. After Cassie passed away I retitled the pool.
Cancer, 1989 - acrylic on canvas, 66 x 96 in, 167.6 x 243.8 cm
Description: The doctor in his office drew this shape like a Matisse cut-out. It was a cancer cell of some kind. I would stop listening. I felt powerless. I just looked at the shape he had drawn on a yellow legal pad. So, I had the biggest canvas made and started painting.
Christopher, 1989 - acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 in, 50.8 x 40.6 cm
Description: From a photo of Christopher, headed back to school.
Panic Attack, 1989 - acrylic on canvas, 36 x 24 in, 91.4 x 61 cm
Red Tails, 1989 - acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 in, 76.2 x 61 cm
Description: We lived in the back of Ramirez Canyon in a home I christened “Red Tails”. This is a view from the bedroom balcony. My studio was right beside our bedroom, and this is where I would start my painting life. The year was 1989 and we had now moved to Malibu. The house sat on the side of the hill like a Spanish Villa — alone and exotic.
The Day the Car Got Stolen, 1989 - acrylic on canvas, 36 x 24 in, 91.4 x 61 cm
Description: This is from a photograph taken on Raynes Park Train Station. We had been down to the country for the weekend and left the car at the station. After this photo was taken, we found the car had been stolen. Cassie, Christopher, Charlotte and Albert, who was a girl-dog.
Red-Tails Studio, 1989 - acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 in, 76.2 x 61 cm
Description: The house was white with blue trim, a Grecian Villa with a Spanish tile roof and red-tailed hawks in the evening sky. It was in this house that I began to paint. This is where I began to paint and how I began to paint. Stumbling crudely along from day to day with a certain joy for the unknown capacity to paint something.