Terence P. Flanagan PRUA RHA (1929-2011)Roughra Hearth (IV) (1972-3) Watercolour, 76 x 56cm (30 x 22'')Signed and inscribed with titleExhibited: T.P. Flanagan Retrospective, Ulster Museum, Belfast; Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Dublin; Fermanagh County Museum, 1995/1996; T.P. Flanagan: Painter of Light and Landscape, Taylor Gallery Dublin, 2010.The Roughra Hearth series indicate Flanagan’s ability to locate an appropriate visual metaphor as a meditation on ideas, in this case the role the hearth had traditionally played in Irish rural life and its broader social and psychological significance, as well as Flanagan’s own awareness of the lives that had preceded him in the cottage and their relationship with those of his own family. Roughra Hearth IV abstracts the hearth itself, emphasising the slow staining of the turf fire, and balances it with the defined elegance of the shears resting above it. Dickon Hall, February 2020