In the 1990’s there was an exhibition of John Hinde postcards and photography at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in which many of the panoramic landscape images had flowering shrubs, Rhododendrons or Fushias on one side. The plants were either superimposed in the darkroom or perhaps, we had somewhat sardonically imagined, he had several potted plants in the back of his car as he travelled the beauty spots and had strategically placed them as a compositional flourish before taking the picture. This is a self portrait called ‘Portrait of the Artist Under Fuchsia’ which owes a bit of debt to those Hinde images. The fuchsia is an ubiquitous hedgerow plant throughout Ireland and for me represents the landscape of Donegal.
Michael Ward Artist 