Terence P. Flanagan PRUA RHA (1929-2011)Rowan in the Rain (1967)Oil on canvas board, 40 x 55 cm (15¾ x 21½'')Signed and indistinctly dated (19)'67 Rowan in the Rain has many hallmarks of Flanagan’s paintings of water and the surrounding landscape. There is a carefully balanced interplay between the intersecting shapes of water and land, muted tonal harmonies that bring together the sky, water and land, and a sense of physical ambiguity in which land and even the tree to the left seem as momentarily shifting and intangible as the water around them. The introduction of the rowan trees, however, seem to bring into focus a specific moment and a memory to which the artist has returned in the studio. They form a strongly organised pictorial unit and the fruit on the trees creates a colourful abstract rhythm, while their traditional associations might perhaps be a reminder of mystical traditions passed down locally.Dickon Hall, February 2020