{"id":173910,"date":"2025-11-10T22:34:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T22:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/173910\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T22:34:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T22:34:21","slug":"the-remarkable-portraits-of-public-figures-by-irish-artist-colin-davidson-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/173910\/","title":{"rendered":"The remarkable portraits of public figures by Irish artist Colin Davidson \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colin Davidson<\/a> is a remarkable Irish artist<\/a>. He also happens to be one of my closest friends. Our collaboration on Twelve Paintings has turned out to be one of the most fulfilling projects of my professional life. <\/p>\n

Davidson may be best known as a painter of portraits \u2013 but he doesn\u2019t regard himself as a portrait painter per se. Indeed, despite the fact that many of those who\u2019ve sat for him are well-known public figures, he rails against any suggestion that he\u2019s a \u201ccelebrity\u201d painter. Even though the late Queen Elizabeth<\/a>, Seamus Heaney<\/a> and Edna O\u2019Brien<\/a>, as well as Ed Sheeran and Brad Pitt, feature prominently in his work, he\u2019s quick to emphasise what he sees as the democracy of painting portraits. <\/p>\n

Davidson takes the standard portrait painter\u2019s challenge of producing a likeness on canvas one step further. He manages to capture the essence of the person sitting in front of him. <\/p>\n

In his typically large-scale painting of the late John Hume we can detect a man no longer fully aware of his contribution to the peace process. \u201cWho\u2019s Senator George Mitchell?\u201d he asks as Davidson sketches and photographs him. We glimpse moments of unmistakable sadness and inner reflection etched into the faces of President Bill Clinton and Liam Neeson. Davidson\u2019s home city of Belfast is treated as if it too is sitting for a portrait \u2013 lovingly recorded, elegiac almost. <\/p>\n

READ MOREThe Celebrity Traitors final review: A thriller ending worthy of a fascinating series<\/a>\"The<\/a>100 great restaurants, cafes and places to eat around Ireland for winter 2025<\/a>\"100<\/a>Brianna Parkins: I\u2019ve nothing against Irish men. I keep one myself. But I recommend Irish women<\/a>\"Brianna<\/a>\"FormerFormer US president Bill Clinton by Colin Davidson. \"ColinColin Davidson and President Michael D Higgins at the unveiling a portrait of the President by the Belfast-born artist. Photograph: Andrew Downes\/Xposure \"TheThe late Seamus Heaney poses alongside Colin Davidson’s portrait of him \"QueenQueen Elizabeth II by Colin Davidson \"JohnJohn Hume by Colin Davidson \"EdnaEdna O’Brien by Colin Davidson \"ChristyChristy Moore by Colin Davidson \"IanIan Paisley by Colin Davidson. \"MartinMartin McGuinness by Colin Davidson \"ColinColin Davidson’s image of Angela Merkel, as depicted on Time Magazine’s Person of the Year issue in 2015 \"BrianBrian Friel by Colin Davidson \"EdEd Sheeran by Colin Davidson <\/p>\n

Mark Carruthers is a broadcaster and journalist based in Belfast. He chaired the Board of the Lyric Theatre for eight years. Colin Davidson: Twelve Paintings \u2013 conversations with Mark Carruthers is published by Merrion Press at \u20ac35\/\u00a330.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colin Davidson is a remarkable Irish artist. He also happens to be one of my closest friends. Our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,19,17,2212],"class_list":{"0":"post-173910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-weekendreview"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115527789535237751","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}