Colin Watson
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Colin Watson
"Injured Swan"
Oil on canvas, 40" x 50"
"Injured Swan"
Oil on canvas, 40" x 50"
Belfast born, Colin Watson is one of Ireland’s most distinctive, contemporary landscape and figurative painters. The settings for his paintings are often Arcadian style landscapes, populated with one or two figures, engaged in some form of subtle interaction or quiet contemplation, the meaning of which is often elusive and left up to the viewer to decide. As contemporary as Colin’s paintings are they also hark back in style to artists such as the influential 19th Century French painter, Puvis de Chavannes, with their shallow perspective and frieze like appearance. In this way Colin’s paintings hint at an allegorical subject matter without being overtly obvious. Rather his paintings are imbued with mystery, the era in which they are set is left open to interpretation, with no clues offered by the manner in which the figures he paints are dressed or by any man made features or contemporary objects in the landscape. In this way his paintings capture both the particular of lived experience and the universal nature of human experience, in an attempt to depict, as Colin Watson put it himself, quoting Cecil Collins “an incomprehensible image of life”. Colin’s paintings are enigmatic, in the sense that they refuse to offer the viewer any easy explanations, but instead offer a tantalizing glimpse of the universal and the unknowable.
Colin Watson’s paintings have been exhibited extensively at the Royal Academy, London, the Royal Ulster Academy, Belfast and the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin. He has also had numerous solo exhibitions in London, Dublin, Belfast and Marrakech. In 2008, he was invited by HRHA the Prince of Wales to accompany him on the royal tour of Japan, Brunei and Indonesia as the official tour artist. His paintings are now included in many major international collections including those of Royal Collection, London; HRH The Prince of Wales; HRH The Duchess of Cornwall; His Majesty King Mohamed VI, Rabat, Morocco; the Ulster Museum; the Arts Council of Northern Ireland; the Royal Geographical Society; London the National Self Portrait Collection of Ireland, Limerick University; the Government Collection, Northern Ireland and in numerous private collections in the U.S.A., Morocco, the U.K. and Ireland.
Colin Watson’s paintings have been exhibited extensively at the Royal Academy, London, the Royal Ulster Academy, Belfast and the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin. He has also had numerous solo exhibitions in London, Dublin, Belfast and Marrakech. In 2008, he was invited by HRHA the Prince of Wales to accompany him on the royal tour of Japan, Brunei and Indonesia as the official tour artist. His paintings are now included in many major international collections including those of Royal Collection, London; HRH The Prince of Wales; HRH The Duchess of Cornwall; His Majesty King Mohamed VI, Rabat, Morocco; the Ulster Museum; the Arts Council of Northern Ireland; the Royal Geographical Society; London the National Self Portrait Collection of Ireland, Limerick University; the Government Collection, Northern Ireland and in numerous private collections in the U.S.A., Morocco, the U.K. and Ireland.