ARTIST STATEMENT
MARTIN DE PORRES WRIGHT

As an artist I work hard to develop paintings and sculptures that speak to me and to others about the beauty and mystery of our ancient boglands.

A vital part of my process before I begin is to read from the following lines I discovered from a narrative piece found at the ‘Bogland’ exhibition in the Connemara National Park.

“Bogs have always been respected as fearful and dangerous places. They have proved to be safe havens in time of conflict. They are valuable sources of fuel. … They are the mummified remains of the past. The embalmers of history and of pre-history. …In their wild beauty and stillness they are the inspiration of poets and artists. …Finally, they are indefinable, timeless and mystical places - and it is these qualities that may yet be recognised to be their greatest value to human society.”

I do not merely want to capture an image; rather, with considered, careful use of turf, turf dust and colour to capture the ESSENCE and SOUL of these profound words and profound places.

I try hard with every finished work to bring new and unexpected life into these ancient boglands; to surprise the viewer with the spirit of the ancient, the challenge being not to caricature, but to capture it in all its glory.

The hope is that my artworks speak, not only for me, but for the current generation who continue to utilise the boglands, and for the past generations who worked these boglands, long since silenced by the passage of time.

I expect to learn more about working with bog material, and different ways of transforming it onto canvas and into three dimensional artworks. About this material, Seamus Heaney wrote in his poem.

Bogland

I am deeply interested in utilising this material that has outlived millennia and will long outlive me, whether as dust, or mixed into a kind of butter, or shaped together to release that timeless spirit – a contradictory spirit that can at once be the warm comforting fire and the icy grave.