Organisation : | Waterford County Museum |
Article Title : | The Ardmore Journal |
Page Title : | Joan Jameson & Norah McGuinness - Two Painters In Ardmore |
Page Number : | 3 |
Publication Date : | 08 February 2011 |
Expiry Date : | Never Expires |
Category : | Ardmore |
URL : | https://www.waterfordmuseum.ie/exhibit/web?task=Display&art_id=331&pagenum=3&lang=en |
Ardmore has been a back-ground for the work of two remarkable and deservedly acclaimed painters, Joan Jameson and Norah McGuinness. Joan Jameson, a Musgrave of Tourin, knew Ardmore from childhood, and in her later years was a resident, owner of Rock House.
In her method and manner of working Joan seems the direct opposite of Norah, who noticed so much and threw away so much of it - Their paintings were as different as the backgrounds of their lives - Norah fought her way into painting - In her young days she lived on a very sparse income, though always with grace and distinction. Joan found her way into painting against the time-consuming social life in which she was born and brought up - The figures that peopled her canvas, sometimes too bluntly and directly for ignorant eyes, were fishermen and their families, with their boats and their nets - As models she often used her husband and her son, Julian - These pictures contained all the grandeur, delights and sorrows of the changing sea, and those who seek their living on it - Late in her life she painted a small crowd walking towards the church, a couple of worshipers are engulfed in the doorway - a woman's figure, like a small ghost, watches them distantly. She seems to accept, perhaps with wonder, perhaps with envy, a tradition that she does not share. When I was young we played at Rock House, a small game suited to our age or our lean finances. The game succeeded a wonderful tea, created by Agnes Power, whose never-failing genius was behind the hospitality of Rock House. After tea we would settle to the cards as though thousands were at stake. Joan played quite as seriously as we did. Ardmore is still blessed with two artists - or should they be called superb craftswomen? - At Rock House Patricia Cockburn labours very successfully at turning sea shells into flower pictures; and at Star Cottage, Mary Lincoln's potter's wheel has some delightful pieces to its credit - Their true and unfantasticated shapes have a simple dignity and usefulness. |
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