Terence P. Flanagan PRUA RHA (1929-2011)Islands, Lough ErneOil on board, 114 x 114cm (44¾ x 44¾'')Signed and dated (19)'71Exhibited: Across a Roaring Hill, Bonhams Dublin, 2015.At various moments in his painting career T.P. Flanagan reduced the elements of a particular composition to a point close to abstraction but, however minimal the description of forms or the application of paint, the visual image that was his starting point always remained at the heart of the work. In the present painting the definite horizontal dashes of islands place the horizon precisely two thirds of the way up the canvas and establish tensions with the irregular rocky foreground, substantial but indistinct, and the illusory effects of light and water. Islands, Lough Erne was painted at the same period as An Ulster Elegy and Flanagan’s Frozen Lake series, and the quiet minimalism of the painting evokes the complex mood and broader implications of these works, without losing its direct response to the place that inspired it. Dickon Hall, February 2020