The Malta Suite

In 2017 I spent a holiday on the Maltese islands. The experience was, in some respects, a challenging one. Malta is not conventionally picturesque, but it did have a definite aesthetic impact upon me. On my return to the UK the legacy of the experience was a series of pictures in which I responded to that environment.

The titles I have given to items in the group are all taken from the poetry of T.S. Eliot, for which I have a long-term affection. The bleakness of his imagery seems to match very well my associations with Malta.

In one other respect this material resonated with a thread of imagery that has run through my work more generally and reflected also in my exploration of Pennine landscapes. This is summed up in the word “beyond”, which in a general way points towards questions about the possibilities for individual attainment, personal fulfilment, and transcendence.

“A pool among the rock” (Sliema beach) (T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land)

“Between the motion and the act Falls the shadow” (T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men)

The Prickly Pair (T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men)

Beyond the Waste Land

“If there were the sound of water only “Sound of water over rock But there is no water.” (T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land)

“Multifoliate rose of death’s twilight kingdom” (T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men)

“Is it like this in death’s other kingdom? Walking alone?” (T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men)

“And other withered stumps of time Were told upon the walls.” (T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land)

“….pray for those who were in ships, and ended their voyage on the sand” (T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets (Dry Salvages)

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