ART QA Magazine SPRING 2016

Paul McCloskey INTERVIEW AQA: When did you decide to become an artist? And looking back now, what do you think about that choice?

McCloskey: I don’t think it was ever a decision as such, or a choice. It was something I had to do in order to be me - being an artist is part of who I am. I know this because there were times in my life that I didn’t want the burden of having to create. Patrick Kavanagh and William Butler Yeats referred to this burden as a hunger that can only be satisfied through creating, or a monster that would only sleep after fulfilling the creative urge. I would distract myself with anything else, but over time this becomes very dissatisfying. I’ve heard it referred to as “emotional suicide.” Increasingly, it haunts and taunts you to produce and creating is then the only relief.

Art has sustained me emotionally, financially and spiritually over the years and the older I get, the more I realise what a true gift it has been, how it has taken my life out of the mundane, and allowed me to explore this enthralling energy that works through me during the creative process into a magical world of spirit.

AQA: Where do you live now?

McCloskey: I live in Gorey, County Wexford.

AQA: How long have you lived there?

McCloskey: I’ve lived in Gorey now for 25 years. About 12 years ago, I built a house a couple of miles outside of town in a stunning country area. The place and the people are a constant inspiration as I’m surrounded by the most stunning countryside.

AQA: What brought you to this place?

McCloskey: As well as being a painter, I’m also a professional teacher of Art and Design and I moved here from Dublin to secure a teaching job.

AQA: When did you start making art?

McCloskey: From as far back as I can remember in early childhood, I was always fascinated by art. It excited me and gave me identity. My twin sister is also an artist and when we were very young children, we would spend our time filling copybooks with drawing after drawing. Although, I remember when I was about 14 years old discovering Rembrandt’s paintings in an old book I got from the library and being in total awe. Around the same time, a local man opened an art supply shop in his house selling a limited range of art materials. I would visit, usually after I spent a Saturday or some evenings unloading boxes of frozen food from lorries into freezers for a local business, and use the money to buy art materials to experiment with. I could barely contain my excitement at the prospect of trying out new materials. One of the first paintings I did in oil paint was to attempt to copy Rembrandt’s stunning painting, “Lady Bathing in a Stream”.

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