The Irish artist Paul Hughes (b. 1966) was born and raised in Dublin, where he has a studio in a converted pig barn. In 2009 his first exhibition of abstract landscapes focusing on depicting light above and below horizons, was held in Dublin to great acclaim, leading to his first solo show in London at the King’s Road Gallery. Since then, he has had further successful exhibitions in London and his work has been launched by Tanya Baxter Contemporary in Asia.

Paul Hughes has always had an obsession with light, starting with the beautiful chiaroscuro around Dublin Bay. His work is constantly evolving: in his latest projects, such as The InfinitePossibilities of The Space Between, he has endeavoured to break out of the restraints of seascapes and to deconstruct everything to pure colour expression, in which the darker spaces give the light its intensity. The works invite viewers to dive headlong into the infinite spaces, or wherever the mind and imagination may take them.

His most recent series of paintings, A Place, on this Earth, are inspired by the beautiful Greenane Islands, an archipelago in the mouth of the Kenmare River in County Kerry, southwest Ireland. This area boasts some of Ireland’s most iconic scenery with high peaks and green farmland sloping down to golden beaches and wild seascapes. The islands, which span a total of 55 acres, have been abandoned for years and are now home only to grazing goats. The ruins of some old stone dwellings are evidence that life for humans on the islands, which have no fresh water, became too tough.

Every day, the artist Paul Hughes makes his way to the promontory at the end of Cuss Strand, on the mainland, and looks out at these islands which for him have taken on a vital, almost talismanic significance. He describes his standpoint on the shore as “A place. One place. A place on the edge of my world.”

In a kind of meditative state, he stands and stares, as he breathes in the scene - “an expanse of light, or air, of colour, of movement, of silence.” He observes the ebb and flow of the tide, and the often fast-changing weather which sometimes seems to encompass four seasons in a single hour. The islands are not far off shore, it would be almost possible to wade out to them at low tide. They offer a constant point of focus for the eye and the mind.

The small, low Greenane Islands with their untold ancient secrets and stories of the past, also fulfil Hughes’ wish for a foreground in his highly expressive abstract landscape paintings. They form a nucleus, a focal point in the endless expanse of light and air and sea beyond.

In these mesmerizing paintings with their myriad jewel-like hues, Hughes captures the ethereal light which is constantly changing as the day advances, from the softness of dawn to the tranquility of dusk. Every painting is a voyage of discovery, a physical expression of brushstrokes onto the canvas. He is fascinated by Nature which he says is constantly moving forward and evolving, as it “weathers, shapes, feeds, creates, destroys and heals”.

This place, Greenane Islands, is of course unique, yet Hughes feels it is somehow connected with every other place in the world. Several of the paintings are entitled simply “Standing Still & Staring”, as he marvels at the seascape with its ever-changing moods, each of which he translates onto canvas. In these works, he communicates the life-affirming and steadfast values of the natural world, creating paintings that are universal in their appeal.

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