Monthly Archives: September 2010

Perugino’s Perspective

My inaugural lecture as a Professor of the Dublin Institute of Technology in September 2008 was the highlight of my career and I spent a lot of time preparing for it. I wanted to refer to Pietro Perugino’s painting of ‘Christ handing over the keys to St. Peter’ from the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican, 1482, and I prepared the illustration as a pencil drawing or study. I had seen and taken photographs of the painting while on a holiday in Rome. I used a straight edge in setting out the square grid base of the scene in perspective, much as I believe the artist and his team must have done. At a later stage I used software to add a small amount of tinting and to superimpose silhouettes of some of the foreground characters of the original painting.

Photo of Jim McGovern giving his inaugural lecture as a Professof of Dublin Institute of Technology

Jim McGovern giving his inaugural lecture as a Professof of Dublin Institute of Technology

Continue reading →

Star Flowers, the Beginning

In 1990 Stephanie and I decided we would like a large painting of some sort over the mantlepiece in the sitting room of our new home. We made our own and worked on it together. This was pure DIY—we knew nothing about painting. I worked out the technical details and the artistic concepts (such as they are). We both applied paint to canvas and made paper stencils. Star Flowers, the Beginning, has adorned the chimney breast ever since. Those who visit have always been too polite to pass comment. In all that time it has not had a title. Recently Stephanie proposed ‘The Beginning,’ which I felt was rather soppy and I suggested ‘S-Flowers,’ which would have been rather more technical and the ‘S’ could have stood for various things although, in reality, it was equally soppy.

Painting

Star Flowers, the Beginning

Fish in Monaco

On 10 July 2010 Stephanie and I visited the Musée Océanographique de Monaco and my understanding was that we were going to see an excellent aquarium—guess who planned the itinerary. The first thing I noticed on entering the building was a display of a large shark in a glass case. I spent some time examining the specimen and appreciating the shark. In my head I could not understand why the head had been pulled up in what seemed an unnatural way. I had heard about the work of Damien Hirst: animals in formaldehyde with axes and that type of thing, but it did not dawn on me that I had been studying an example. I discovered that later.

Photo of fish

Fish photo

Continue reading →