David Quinn 'Cloghan'

David Quinn . Cloghan

“The true miracle is not walking on water or walking in air, but simply walking on this earth.” 

Thich Nhat Hanh

“What does it mean? I don’t really know!” Says 

David Quinn when I speak with him about 

his work. He pauses momentarily. “It’s not 

meaningless though.” 

Quinn lives and works in Shillelagh in County 

Wicklow, Ireland and his small scale, palimpsestic 

paintings are usually titled in series’ after 

evocative place names nearby. However, it would 

be inaccurate to assume that these paintings are 

intended to be viewed as a minimalist, quasiabstracted 

representation of the Irish landscape. 

He concedes however that perhaps they could 

contain an essence of place, in the way that we 

all contain within us the suffused essence of our 

own experience. 

Quinn is an artist who discovers through the 

act of doing. “We need rituals” Quinn claims. 

He tells me about his beloved late Grandmother, 

and how he used to watch her patiently knit 

for hours in front of a glowing fire. The calm 

prosaic process of repetition became for her 

and him, a meditative act. The honest cycle of 

doing, repeating and growth akin to the honest 

work of a fishermen who makes and mends his 

nets. Again, we return to the word ‘essence’ as 

the paintings undoubtedly contain within them 

the same ritualistic routine where patience and 

perseverance is key. 

All of Quinn’s miniature paintings are now made 

in one of two sizes, which he returns to again 

and again. The majority of works are 8 x 5 inches, 

a scale familiar to us through our relationship 

with books or more recently, digital tablets, and 

is perhaps the perfect size for Quinn to best 

experience the intimate relationship between 

head and hand. It is a scale and form that also 

reflects Quinn’s interest in orthodox icons, which 

may also elucidate the prayer-like surface quality 

of the work. However, Quinn refers to them as 

’notebook’ scale, where he approaches each piece 

as if approaching a diary, notating, getting it 

down, erasing, repeating, losing, finding and so 

on, each layer is a page, studied, developed, and 

concealed through planning and intuition - built 

like layers of sedimentary rock. Time spent in 

contemplation with honest endeavour becomes 

encased within each panel. The process may not 

be precious, but each investment becomes so 

through the devoted act of doing with freedom 

and sensitivity. The cumulative nature of his 

practice is also enforced as series’ of works begin 

to grow. Individual paintings become part of a 

collection of works that all begin to inter-relate. 

A unit part of a greater whole like words in a 

sentence, notes in a tune or hours in a day. 

We continue to discuss the focus that can be 

attained through patience, practice, and ritual. 

Quinn’s fascination with Japanese philosophy 

and spirituality extends beyond an inherent 

interest in the wabi sabi aesthetic which can be 

seen in his work and incorporates the practice 

of meditation. Once aware of these eastern 

influences it is difficult to avoid their mark made 

upon the work. Much of Quinn’s talking is about 

the process of making a painting or a way of 

working which he prescribes to - an honest graft 

- losing yourself in a days work - but this is the 

journey and not the destination. Or perhaps as 

Quinn reminds me it is just “a finger pointing at 

the moon.” 

Joseph Clarke, 2022 

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Cloghan 1 

mixed media on panel, 36.5 x 51.5 cm 

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Cloghan 2 


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Lugnaquilla 1 


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Cloghan 3 


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Cloghan 4 


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Cloghan 12 


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Cloghan 13 


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Lugnaquilla 2 


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Cloghan 17 


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Cloghan 21 


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About: 

Working on several pieces at once, David Quinn’s studio is an intimate, white, rectangular space where 

small scale, inter-related yet instinctively painted works, hang in line or grid. Each piece a self contained 

unit, both unique and yet part of a greater whole, as if individual words as part of a sentence, notes in 

a tune or hours in a day. What at first glance appears simple, minimal and understated, reveals itself 

upon closer inspection to be multilayered and imbued with quiet complexity, where a unique history is 

accumulated, built like strata in sedimentary rock. A finished painting is the summary of the process 

of its creation: a concentrated form or essence, containing both purity and imperfection, each tablet 

a poetic palimpsest, considered by Quinn as a marker of time, spent in contemplation - akin perhaps 

to a physical embodiment of meditation or a prayer. 

David Quinn was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1971 and currently lives and works in Shillelagh, County 

Wicklow. His paintings have been exhibited internationally and can be found in collections worldwide. 

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Published by Anima Mundi to coincide with David Quinn ‘Cloghan’ 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or 

by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publishers 

Anima Mundi . Street-an-Pol . St. Ives . Cornwall . +44 (0)1736 793121 . mail@animamundigallery.com . www.animamundigallery.com

David Quinn 'Cloghan'

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