River Bend

Born in Enniskillen, Flanagan grew up in the heart of Co. Fermanagh's countryside. He went to study under Kathleen Bridle in Lissadell, and her approach to painting nature out of doors was to be a decisive influence on his subsequent career as an artist. Moving to Belfast College of Art he came under the progressive influence of his tutor R.C. Toogood and was to develop a very personal vision of landscape painting. The present composition, in which we glimpse a river bend through an opening in dense foliage, shows the controlled brushstrokes and softly harmonious palette which are characteristic of the artist's recent work.