Aran 2005

This is a photograph called Aran by Sean Scully. Look at this landscape of a grassy field, a rugged stone wall and the sea meeting the sky on the horizon. I can imagine the damp air on the Aran Islands, the feeling of walking that land, the rough textures of the wall and tufts of grass, the cold, gray expanse of the sea. There’s something so solid and real about it. You can almost feel the weight of each stone, carefully placed to form that wall. What was Scully thinking as he framed this shot? Was he struck by the contrast between the hard, man-made wall and the softness of the grass? Or maybe it was the way the wall seems to divide the land from the sea, creating these separate but connected zones. It is a reminder that artists see the world in their own way, inspired by what's around them, building on art history and pushing painting forward. We can only imagine what the future will bring!