I found myself back in Rostrevor last August. Home, after nearly 15 years away.

So much had happened, so much had changed.

In the garage of my childhood home, my dad’s belongings lie exactly as he left them. Untouched and unmoved. I began to paint here, surrounded by him.

I went back to working from photographs, something I haven't really done since art college.
Scrolling through my phone, the images became a ‘hindsight calendar’ that seemed to capture the rapid passing of time better than any other means.

The photographs I chose to paint were often unextraordinary and maybe even mundane, but for me they documented little corners of home across the year. Places that are familiar, peaceful, nostalgic. Places where I could reflect, breathe, mourn and renew. Many of the images were taken while out walking or driving with my wife and daughters. Places the girls had not been before but meant so much to me. I was rediscovering the landscape of my childhood as a father, but without my own.

The digital images pinpointed exact dates and times and I became fixated on intensely remembering those moments. I needed a foothold into painting - something I could get lost in. I re-lived those moments and re-imagined those places for the duration of the work, which in some cases took months. I thought about the people I was with; the place I was in; about times I had been there before. I thought about what had happened after the photographs were taken. About the things I hadn’t known then. My work became a visual diary, responding to moments captured and the memories they stirred.

As I completed this series, I became interested in the idea of signing and dating a painting. Should one date a piece of work when it is finished (is it ever finished?) from when it began? or both? The date of the original source photographs became significant for this work and so, for this show, I have used this to date the paintings. The accompanying text allows the viewer a brief insight into this diary of moments now passed, as I look back to move forward.