Lot Essay
In 1935 Luke produced an oil painting entitled 'Edenderry'. It was painted from the same spot as the present work but was on a larger
scale. Although very colourful it lacked any life as it was pure landscape, without human, animals or birds. At this time the artist was still experimenting with mediums but although he continued to use oil paint until the outbreak of the war he was accomplished enough in the use of tempera to produce, less than a year later, one of his best know pictures 'The Bridge' (formerly in the collection of the Queen's University Common Room). He continued to develop his own style in tempera up to 1939 when produced 'Shaw's Bridge', the front cover for the Arts Council exhibition catalogue.
Between 1939 and 1943 Luke stopped painting, probably because he and his mother were living in East Belfast, not too far from the target of the Docks and like many thousands they fled to the safety of the country lanes beyond the city limits on the nights the sirens sounded. It was after a heavy spell of bombing around Easter 1941 that they both moved to the steward's house at Knappagh Farm, near Killyleagh in Co. Antrim. Here he found peace and more importantly a place to grow his vegetables as from the start of the War he had registered as a vegan and fresh fruit and vegetables were in short supply in heavily rationed Belfast.
His first tempera after moving to the country was 'Pax', followed the next year by the present work. In one of his many long and detailed letters to his friend John Hewitt he mentions that he has redesigned
the earlier 'Lock at Edenderry', introducing 'human figures, some animals, some birds on the wing and on the ground [for] some of the landscapes I have done in the past, even at the time, struck me as being a bit deserted in content'. Then follows a detailed account of the technique employed, no longer 'frustrated in doing so by the stick and buttery mess of the modern technique that reflects a materialistic age, [for] it is almost impossible to transform and transcend pigment by 'the hand it to me over the counter' method prevailing today'. The advantages of painting a smaller version first are explored: 'I hold that an artist who can make a small painting significant can do much better on a larger scale ... and that the painting is therefore quantitatively and qualitatively changed, to use one of your expressions'. This is, of course, a reference to the Marxist principle that changes in quantity become changes in quality'.
scale. Although very colourful it lacked any life as it was pure landscape, without human, animals or birds. At this time the artist was still experimenting with mediums but although he continued to use oil paint until the outbreak of the war he was accomplished enough in the use of tempera to produce, less than a year later, one of his best know pictures 'The Bridge' (formerly in the collection of the Queen's University Common Room). He continued to develop his own style in tempera up to 1939 when produced 'Shaw's Bridge', the front cover for the Arts Council exhibition catalogue.
Between 1939 and 1943 Luke stopped painting, probably because he and his mother were living in East Belfast, not too far from the target of the Docks and like many thousands they fled to the safety of the country lanes beyond the city limits on the nights the sirens sounded. It was after a heavy spell of bombing around Easter 1941 that they both moved to the steward's house at Knappagh Farm, near Killyleagh in Co. Antrim. Here he found peace and more importantly a place to grow his vegetables as from the start of the War he had registered as a vegan and fresh fruit and vegetables were in short supply in heavily rationed Belfast.
His first tempera after moving to the country was 'Pax', followed the next year by the present work. In one of his many long and detailed letters to his friend John Hewitt he mentions that he has redesigned
the earlier 'Lock at Edenderry', introducing 'human figures, some animals, some birds on the wing and on the ground [for] some of the landscapes I have done in the past, even at the time, struck me as being a bit deserted in content'. Then follows a detailed account of the technique employed, no longer 'frustrated in doing so by the stick and buttery mess of the modern technique that reflects a materialistic age, [for] it is almost impossible to transform and transcend pigment by 'the hand it to me over the counter' method prevailing today'. The advantages of painting a smaller version first are explored: 'I hold that an artist who can make a small painting significant can do much better on a larger scale ... and that the painting is therefore quantitatively and qualitatively changed, to use one of your expressions'. This is, of course, a reference to the Marxist principle that changes in quantity become changes in quality'.