Tory Island, 1966

James Dixon spent most of his life working as a crofter and fisherman on the storm-ridden Tory Island, off the north-west coast of Ireland. He only began to paint in his late sixties, representing local activities, stories and places mainly associated with the sea.

Tory Island offers a telling example of Dixon’s choice of subject matter. The painting shows an imagined view of the harbour at West Village, seen as if from mid-air and out to sea, with the day’s catch being hauled onto the pier. As it is often the case in Dixon’s paintings, the scene is described in an inscription, here in the bottom left corner: “Tory Island Fishermen With A Good catch of Fish at the Pier + a Tractor Pulling up the mail Boat After coming from the Mainland With the Post By James Dixon Tory Isl 3.3.1966”.

Dixon approached his subjects with considerable freshness and vivacity. He worked from memory without excessive concerns for technical matters. His technique, however, is only apparently elementary and includes some surprising mark-making – found here in the dots and flecks of paint and the scratches and incisions made with pencil. A certain crudeness in some of the details is balanced by the delicacy and overall assurance in the composition of the image. The date in the inscription suggests that the work was completed in a single session.

Provenance: purchased by Harold Swan (H.S. Ede’s son-in-law) from New Gallery, Belfast, 1966 (?); gift of Harold Swan to H.S. Ede, 1966.