Women in Stone

“Women in Stone”

Robert Canaga

Last year we took a trip to Ireland. The first day, while my wife was at work, I went to one of my all-time favorite museums, the National Gallery only to find HUGE storm damage had closed all but two galleries.

Sean Scully was having a small show in the rotating gallery space they had set up. I had seen his work of and on over the years but never thought much of it. This time I had a visceral reaction to it. I disliked it on many levels: dead colors, sameness of mark, quality of the paint. 

I walked through 5 times making sure I was not just in a bad mood but the looks on the guards faces told me they agreed.

In the next room were photos he had done  of the rock fences and walls on Aran Island. These were the beginnings of his paintings and they impressed me.

We left the east and drove up to Sligo for a few days, then down to Glin on the Shannon River. I took pictures of wall, fences, burial mounds, city walls, and just about anything made of rocks all along the way.

On a day trip to Limerick I saw a wall made of white rock with brick where a fireplace had been.

The shape and color reminded me of a figure. When I got home I went through some of my recent files and found photos of models and began inserting them into the rock photos.

The result pleased me so I hired models and finished the series you see here.

I hope you enjoy them.

All work is in an edition of 50.