Maggie Taylor, Route to the Sea, 2026, oil on canvas, 102 cm x 76 cm
It is dusk, lights on the water shimmer and grey clouds merge with smoke billowing from chimneys. Long dark shadows stretch out before us, full of mystery, feelings and memories. Along the bank a lonely house is silhouetted against the sky and some tiny people, like specks of dust, continue their journey, their route to the sea.
The cast shadows have hidden depths and meanings. They are not part of the real world and express a presence beyond and within the picture plane. Who is there that we cannot see and touch?
The scene embodies a rite of passage, the sea, not just a physical waterway, but a human one leading to a destination which may be unknown. We all tread this path, as others have before us. While I travel through grief, I process the loss of a loved one. He is an absent presence, but we journey on together.
“Painting is the language of loss. The scraping-off of layers of paint, again and again, the rebuilding, the losing again. hoping, then despairing, then hoping. Can you control your feelings of loss by this process of painting, which is fundamentally structured by loss?” (Paul, 2019 p. 152)
Route to the Sea (detail)
