CAG.3017 Patrick Scott, Meditation Painting 33, c.2006, acrylic and gold leaf on canvas, 122.3 x 80.9 cm. Bequeathed, the Artist, 2014. © the artist’s estate.

This WORK OF THE WEEK marks the final few days of our exhibition Patrick Scott: meditations, which closes on Sunday 5 December.

Meditation Painting 33 (c.2006) is a late work by Patrick Scott and possesses many hallmarks of the artist’s signature style. One of a series of final ‘Gold Paintings’, it is a study in pure abstraction and contains a circle in gold leaf – a recurring element across his career – set above twenty-one bands of dark acrylic paint. The title offers no meaning but perhaps a function is suggested: a device for meditation, reflection, contemplation.

“Scott’s landscapes tremble on the edge of non-recognition, and then go over,” artist Brian O’Doherty (b.1928) considers. “His circles – sun, cell, seed, blot – always elevated to the top half of the canvas over an horizon line, said that your associations are your own, but insisted that I am just a picture. As he went on to his mature gold and unprimed canvases, this insistence became as much part of the painting as the paint.”

Patrick Scott (1921-2014), whose centenary is this year, was recently celebrated in a commemorative stamp from An Post designed by Oonagh Young. Aside from painting, Scott’s career also encompassed architecture, design, and the mosaics at Busáras, Dublin. Perhaps his most broadly recognisable contribution, however, was the orange, black, and white carriage livery – inspired by his ginger cat Miss Mouse! – adopted on CIÉ trains for decades.

Meditation Painting 33 is featured in Patrick Scott: meditations (Floor 2) until 5 December.

Tune into The Arts House with Elmarie Mawe on Cork’s 96FM and C103FM every Sunday morning as Conor Tallon chats with assistant curator Michael Waldron about each WORK OF THE WEEK! Listen back to this week's chat here:

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