Above The River Cart Stands The Hollowed Out Heart - Oil on Canvas

"Above The River Cart Stands The Hollowed Out Heart"

Oil Paint on Canvas

"Storytelling is the impetus behind my practice . For the last few years the stage for the stories I am striving to create within my paintings and drawings has been my home city of Glasgow.

An office building in Cathcart which had been hollowed out and left to sit empty and exposed for many months was the inspiration for this painting “Above The River Cart Stands The Hollowed Out Heart”. The building was to be converted into homes like the older Cathcart House which stands alongside it.

Sometimes the subjects of my paintings are the buildings and streets of Glasgow which have enough experience and character to tell their own stories. When I introduce a human figurative element I look to find a relationship between the built environment and the human figures so they echo off and find resonances within each other.

The structures in this painting have served different purposes over the years and had changed to adapt to the passage of time. At this point in time one building had completed a state of regeneration and transformation while the other stood looking almost abandoned after being gutted of its interior life. It waited to see what the future would bring as the river Cart flowed by below illustrating the passage of time.

I placed human figures standing on the two bridges reaching over the river, one in front of each building. I never want to be too prescriptive about the story which I discover within a painting as it progresses and let the viewer find their own narrative but in my mind each of these figures represent the same person at different periods of their life. One who has had their heart hollowed out in a metaphorical sense having experienced hurt or loss. As their eyes meet one issues a silent reassurance to the other that time will pass and change will happen but with this transformation can come healing. The hollowed out heart of the building mirrors that of the figure standing below. Both will find renewal, healing and new sense of purpose. "

Painting complete in 2022

Dimensions - 91 x 122 x 1 cm

Signed by artist Coll Hamilton