Sailing to Byzantium

It is not a direct influence of the W. B. Yeat’s poem but a visual response to the underlying themes of transformation and spirituality in the poem Sailing to Byzantium. A poem that has resonated with Mark for many years. The creative journey undertaken in the process of painting is echoed in the poem's metaphorical journey.

Mark Ainsworth said that colour and all its magical properties are at the centre of his creative output. Mark was Senior Lecturer at the Art College in Belfast/ University of Ulster from 1982 until 2012. His work is held in many public and private collections including the Arts Council of England and First Guaranty Bank of Massachusetts.

Donna Ainsworth exhibits new small watercolours & mixed media studies which are inspired by where she lives, looking across Belfast Lough in Bangor. They are an abstract interpretation of the play of light as it moves across the town houses, sea and landscape. Looking down from her studio window at the reflections of light and the way it seems to be ever changing, she wishes to re-invent the colours, forms and space she perceives into her own imaginative world of painting.