Hauntedbyvividimageryfromheryouth, ANNEMAGILL’spaintings
arerichinatmosphereandsuggestion.She tellsSTEVEPILLhow
sheworks withfoundphotographyto achievetheseeffectsLEFTHomeward,
charcoalonpanel,
50x50cm
OPPOSITEPAGE
Night,oilon
canvas,40x30cmt
heuseofphotographyis integraltotheworkof
AnneMagill,yetherpaintingsareaboutasfarasit
is possibletogetfroma merefacsimileofa figure
ora scene.Alwayselusiveyetcomfortinglyfamiliar,they
suggestratherthandescribe,hintingata nostalgicfora
non-specificeraorplace.Thecatalogueforher
forthcomingexhibition,A SenseofSomeone, statesthat
Anne’s“paintingsaremadetobereadlikephotographs”,
yettheydothingsthatonlypaintingscando,engagingjustDeveloping
photos
IN-DEPTHenough and then allow breathing
space for the viewer to overlay his
or her own stories and memories.
Each new work develops from a
starting point that almost always
centres around a photograph and
Anne’s relationship with it. She
perhaps prizes photography given its
rarefied status during her childhood.
Born into a Presbyterian farming
family in Millisle, County Down in
1962, there were precious few images
of her as a child and formal family
photographs were hidden in drawers.
Anne filled that void with drawing.
At the age of 18, she took the ferry
to Liverpool to begin her foundation
course. “When I first left, it was about
10 o’clock,” she recalls. “The boat
would leave and then come down the
coast of Ireland. At that time, it would
have taken my parents an hour and
a half to get back home.
“We had no phones or anything,
so I remember standing on the boat trying to work out
where the villages were. We’d just come around the back
of the Copeland Island and Donaghadee towards Millisle
and there was this flashing. My dad had driven to the
headland and he was just flashing the headlights.
“It was so moving when I think of it now. I love that
sense of beacons. And it was bonkers because he was
doing it for an hour – I remember being 18 and standing
on deck thinking, ‘oh dad, you sillymoo!’”
Artists & Illustrators 61