| George Horan
Random Thoughts
All theoretical arguments aside, for me painting is about my obsession with the mysterious and the beautiful.
The act of painting connects me to a human tradition which, in one form or another, spans over 35,000 years.
Constructing a theoretical basis for my paintings would be a self absorbed pointless and distracting activity. My work may have many meanings but essentially the antique art of applying paint to canvas or paper is simply creation.
The product is a work of art which may be abstract, representational or any combination of these qualities but it can only ever be its own reality. They constitute a record of my meditations.
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George Horan
George Horan was born in New Brunswick but has lived in Newfoundland since 1956. He has studied painting, drawing, sculpture and print making through Memorial University of Newfoundland Extension Services, where he has also taught Portrait Painting and Life Drawing. Since he began showing his work in 1980, he has participated in more than 20 solo and group exhibits in Canada and Europe. Curators have described Horan’s expressive paintings as “tempestuous and sensuously messy”. His work is included in numerous private and corporate collections throughout Canada, Brazil, the United States, England, and France.
A dedicated advocate for the arts, Horan is a member of the Resource Centre for the Arts in St. John’s, the Artist’s Coalition of Newfoundland and Labrador, and has served on various councils for Canadian Artists Representation/Le front des artistes canadiens (CARFAC).
His logos and prints have been featured in numerous publications for the Canadian Bar Association and the Law Society of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Statement from recent exhibition “Passages”
“The permanent and the ephemeral nature of life continue to be a theme which with the beautiful and the mysterious is the inspiration for much of my work. It is the exploration of this boundary often ambiguous that lies below the surface of these paintings of land, air and water. These passages of paint on paper constitute a metaphor for my passage in life. The paintings encapsulate the images which fascinate me and delight my eye. Whatever attraction these particular images have for me, they are bound up in the dualities of our world.
Creation involves destruction, light embraces the darkness and transience can only exist in relation to the permanent or concrete.
The air, the water and the land are engaged in a dance of creation and destruction each contains the seeds of the others’ existence and dissolution.
These paintings are a record of my meditations on this theme of life and the very act of painting them mirrors the processes and duality to which the paintings refer.”
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