“This exhibition is about water. Water is featured in each scene to highlight how commonplace it is in art. The impressionist movement focused on water as its main theme showing light and reflection with the use of big brush strokes like Monet and Renoir. Romanticism used water to highlight drama and force especially in sea scapes like Turner and Casper- Friedrich. This collection of paintings was painted effortlessly. My focus on producing this work was to gain maximum enjoyment while painting. I used an expressive technique which resulted in the brush and my subconscious doing most of the work. I would consider this work to be a mixture of Expressionism and Romanticism with Expressionism being the technique used and Romanticism as the intended outcome.”

The work is also philosophical in that the scenes are contemplative, they are all places of potential sanctuary, very atmospheric and thought provoking. This exhibition combines a mixture of excessive colourisation, imaginative landscapes and turbulent and often violent marine scenes”

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” John Lubbock

Mary Haggan is an artist and author based in County Donegal.