The painting "Morning Shadows" echoes these concepts. In the sparse apartment the couple sit separately, the man at the piano with mild disinterest, the woman in a chair, disconsolate ; the two connected only by an intangible grief for loss of the night before, which has brought them to this crux. Outside, the sunrise over the city is an affirmation of the impassive beauty of the world of experience; inside, the environing blue and the shadows from the window hold them captive of their situation: the sum is an internal emptiness that pays tribute to the night before, to the dreams of yesterday, whilst acknowledging the uncertainty of tomorrow. There is something of this fatalism pervading all Maguire's works, which is redeemed by their intricate beauty and the empathy expressed for and deep consciousness of, the pathos of the human condition, with all its illusions and inevitable failures.
Mark John Maguire with Lord Alderdice and Lord Elis-Thomas at Stormont Castle
The paintings of Mark John Maguire are as intriguing as they are
composed and carefully constructed, and they have that quality
which only the greatest artworks possess: it is impossible to see
them without stopping and being transfixed by their luminous
beauty and considering the plight of the figures caught in the
canvas - which is ultimately, one feels, the situation in which we
find ourselves.
Christmas and New Year
Bay Life Living Magazine Nov/Dec 2015/Jan 2016