Margaret Egan's work in this show does not escape that treatment. The Dublin artist's paintings have moved on since her last exhibition here two years ago. There are some more hat paintings but, like the rest of her work, there is much more texture in them than before and the presence of the two women in 'Reunion' is all- powerful.

She pulled out her seascapes, dark grey skies and angry seas of a winter's day, Both the figure paintings and the landscapes of both her native Ireland and of Tuscany are of a wonderful quality, many of the landscapes bordering on the abstract. Their tones and textures in the Irish paintings, however, somehow leave you in no doubt of where you are. You can almost smell the peat in 'Burnt Earth'.

I leave you with the artist's statement, much more succinct and pertinent than anything I can write.

Ian Courcoux

I have always been intrigued by people and landscape and exploring the endless possibilities of the relationship between the two.

The places that people inhabit somehow retain their energy and it's interesting to try to capture a moment in time when one influences the other. The residue is then left and it, in turn, affects every other thing that comes after. I always try to work from memory and although memory is not always accurate, the feeling is always true.

The landscape in this show is mostly Irish, apart from a few that were inspired by journeying through France and Italy last year. For me the challenge is again to get the feeling of the landscape, the layers of history, the history of nature itself with its wonderful raw, sad and sometimes painful excitement.

I want to push the work to its limit, to try to go just beyond, to the truth of it. I will go on trying because I have a passion for it. I have no idea where it will go and that in itself is exciting.

Margaret Egan
September 2005

Click here to see details of Margaret Egan's last exhibition at Courcoux & Courcoux