Review from the Irish Examiner - 20 February 2001

Symphony in blue for truly evocative works of art

A trip to the last great wilderness was the inspiration
for Meg Robinson's art, writes Anne Lucey

A truly wonderful exhibition is taking place at the Frank Lewis Gallery in Killarney until the end of the month.  A Quiet Space by Meg Robinson is a tour de force of colour, a true symphony  in blue and a fine example of the evocative portrait.

The emphasis should be on "taking place" as this is no static exhibition.  There is a process going on here which is deliciously affecting.  Meg's use of blues from Keatsian azure to memory laden blue-brown, stir the heart as well as the soul.  Her paintings communicate a sense of meditative space - the exhibition was opened appropriately by Mangerton mystic and author John Moriarty.  The sense of a deeper mind is evident not just in the more abstract studies like Spirit of Prayer, but also in the haunting portraits.  Sheah Remembering is on of the great paintings of this or of any exhibition.  In Egyptian colours - sand and sky - it draws the viewer in.  What is the red headed Sheah, bruised by experience, remembering?  Is she deserted on the sands of time?  A cameo within the painting suggests it's  younger version of herself, or a dream of what Sheah might have been, or it could be a holiday.  But since the figure's back is to us we can't be sure, a decision that only deepens the mystery.

The paintings were executed over an 18 month period in close contact with nature and people in wild,  remote, primitive parts of Alaska, Canada, Ireland and Spain.  Meg's nomadic journeying inspires her work.  There are more than a few Shakespearean touches and more than a few new interpretations of old plays at the Frank Lewis Gallery.  In Ophelia Abandoned the young woman's intense concentration on her inner journey to madness is positively frightening and intensely vividly realised (curiously red headed Ophelia is tortured pose is unquestionably the same figure as the sad, more meditative Leah).  At the other end of the room Hamlet is all in shadow, painted as a figure in retreat.  "My hope as an artist is to stimulate in others a deep sense of curiosity, wonder and connection to this mysterious inner journey, the journey towards wholeness, towards unconditional love both human and divine," Meg Robinson says in her artist's statement.

She Studied art at St. Martin's, London, and the Edinburgh College of Art, then founded and ran the Independent Painters Workshop in Aberdeen, Scotland, a private art school.  Four years ago she closed the school and became a nomadic artist.  She flew to Anchorage, explored south-central Alaska, flew high into Mount McKinley and travelled down the Inside Passage, stopping off at many of the small islands, an expedition that opened her eyes to Canada and North America.  It was the beginning of a number of return journeys to that part of the world, one of the last great wildernesses.

Much of the work in this exhibition was begun at a primitive prospector's tent beside Atlin Lake over a two month period.  "With the sun hardly setting, 22 hours of daylight does strange things to the body and mind." Meg says.  She burned most of the work, left the cabin for a few days, only to return and start all over again.  "A few of the images survived the madness," she says.  But the burning of the work was an important step in producing really authentic work, she insists.  "My paintings tell stories about moments of deep connection to what lies behind what we see.  They are fragments of something way beyond words."

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