Mick Flaherty

The wall

Twenty-one pieces. Mixed media: ink, wash, pastel, wax and scratched line. Open any one to see it larger.

A crowded totem of mask-like faces on a mustard-yellow ground, staring eyes, bared teeth and a grey ringed shield, worked in oxblood red, ochre and warm black ink. Nº 01
A bone-white ringed form anchors a dripping field of oxblood red, warm black ink, and petrol teal splatters. Worked in watercolour wash, ink spatter, and scratched line work on a stained, ragged ground. Nº 02 A mechanical skull in profile with a gear-shaped eye and ribbed jaw, scratched in bone white and black over grey texture, against orange, red and pink washes. Nº 03 Warm black ink tendrils and grey wash surround a central roundel of patchwork squares in mustard ochre, petrol teal and oxblood red. Scratched line work textures the form, with red watercolour bleeding across the bone-white ground. Nº 04 A dark grey central mass on a bone-white ground bleeding oxblood-red rivulets, with a burnt-orange ring floating top-right among petrol-teal blocks. Nº 05 A blazing oxblood-red disc with a bone-white core pierces a web of warm black ink roots and dripping violet-black branches, set against mustard ochre and burnt sienna washes with scratched white line work. Nº 06 A black orb ringed in gold glitter sits in a splattered field of magenta, pink and violet, with blue edges, a gold line and blue drips running onto a white ground. Nº 07 Heavily textured stacked forms in white, grey and black, scored with incised lines, rise through a red and pink wash, with orange at the lower left. Nº 08
A vertical bloom of fiery burnt orange and red rising between two pale, heavily scratched columns over a dark, scorched base. Nº 09
A dark olive and black band of scraped paint across a white ground holds a bone-white disc, a smaller white dot and a pale vertical streak, with rust brown along the top edge and drips below. Nº 10 A glowing mustard ochre orb sits at the centre of a bleared oxblood red, burnt sienna and warm black ink mass, marked with scratched line work and wax drips on a bone-white ground. Nº 11 A dense tangle of curved forms worked in oil pastel and wax, olive green, burnt sienna, and warm black on a bone white ground. Oxblood red washes bleed from the edges, with scratched line work threading the central cluster. Nº 12 A mask-like face dissolving into the page, molten yellows and oranges at top, indigo-blue and oxblood red streaking down, eyes peering through the surface. Nº 13 A glossy orange orb at the centre of a layered mass: a blue spray-painted swoosh at top left, a vertical blue panel with a white ring, a pale netted form at lower left and orange drips running onto a white ground. Nº 14 A wide, heavily worked mass of yellow, green, grey, red and black paint, scraped and scored into stacked forms, with yellow at the top left and red and black at the lower right, on a white ground. Nº 15
Faces and figures emerge from a dense undergrowth of dark greens and earth tones, with a red bloom at the centre and green wash spreading across a bone-white speckled ground. Nº 16
A dark totem figure sits alone on a white ground, baring a row of sharp teeth, with a petrol-teal shadow behind it and raw red wounds dripping across its body. Nº 17 Pooled organic forms in petrol teal, mustard ochre and deep violet, edged in warm black ink and bone white veining, a fluid encaustic and watercolour surface marbled into cellular shapes. Nº 18 A crowd of mask-like faces and figures packed tight, worked in oxblood red, warm black ink and bone white wash, bared teeth and staring eyes filling the frame. Nº 19 A bald head with wide eyes and a gaping mouth, rendered in soft pink, deep violet and bone white against a vivid red background with mustard ochre at the base. Nº 20 A lone bald man with angular features nurses a pint at a table; behind him a purple-tiled wall and a framed view down a moonlit corridor with a yellow moon visible inside. Nº 21