West End Girls Series Eveline Portrait of a beautiful Irish lady Print

Eveline is a new original painting by Derbyshire based Scottish Artist John McDonald. Eveline is the key portrait in the West End Girls series, a really beautiful, poignant, and moving work. Eveline is not only a painting, but part of a story, part of the story of Butterfly Cry Artist; she was a person without whom John McDonald may never have become an artist. Eveline was created in artist's oil paints on high quality stretched cotton canvas, and is a large artwork measuring 100 x 127 cm. The portrait is painted in black, white and greys, and depicts an old Irish lady with a very deep and human expression, a whole lifetime speaking through her eyes. The background is subtle and beautiful, with soft foliage and tracings of plants, leaving the viewer to decide whether Eveline is standing in her beloved garden, or perhaps in a wall-papered room. The West End Girls series explores heritage and humanity through portraits made in collaboration with some of the inspirational women of the West End of Derby. Eveline came from Dublin as a young woman, with a whole group of young Irish women, in head-scarfs, looking for work at Britannia Mill, a textile mill in Derby's West End. The mill itself has a heritage that goes back to the Domesday book under the entry Markeaton Mill. Since its ancient lineage, it has been a water-powered corn mill, rebuilt in 1818-19 as a paint works, and rebuilt again in 1912 as a textile mill, not water-driven, and was renamed Britannia Mill. Britannia Mill, along with the new Markeaton Street campus, is now part of the University of Derby, thronged with School of Arts students, doing over 30 courses in: art, design, media, technology, performing arts, and creative expressive therapies. Eveline sadly lost her husband in his early 40s and was the sole parent and breadwinner for her little family. Her daughter was born profoundly deaf and was educated just behind the Britannia Mill site, at The Royal School for the Deaf Derby. Despite facing massive barriers due to her deafness, and to being a first language user of British Sign Language, Eveline's daughter, as a mature student, was granted a place at Britannia Mill as a Fine Art undergraduate, and emerged with a First Class degree. During her degree Eveline's daughter was a carer for her elderly mother, giving the same loving and beautiful care that she had received as a child. As an artist, she found it poignant climbing the old back stairs to her lectures and seminars, which at that time were still worn stone steps, carved by the passing of many feet over 100 years. The artist literally walked in her mother's footsteps, treading, in the 21st century, where the young women from Dublin in their head-scarfs had clattered up and down the same steps, as mill workers, years before. When Eveline passed away, a small gift left for John allowed him to buy a very old mercedes camper van, which he named 'Eveline'. He started to paint on his van: trees, sky, sun, moon, little mice... He became quite famous locally for his van, Eveline, and attracted love and attention wherever he travelled. Whether by a roadside, or in a festival, or camping field, wherever John parked Eveline, he would draw and paint on her. People were drawn to him, from small children to adults, pensioners, and people from all nationalities and all walks of life. It was a sad irony that John himself was Deaf, and sometimes was wholly unaware of e.g. a group of teenagers shouting out "Your van's sick mate! That's wicked! Love the van!". But still, John's camper-van artwork drew people to him, and created introduction to conversation, community, even friendship. And it is in this context that John discovered he is an artist. So the portrait of Eveline is a very special painting, and reveals both the seeds and the fruition of John's artistic gifts.

Print:Giclee on Fine Art Paper

Size:8 W x 10 H x 0.1 D in

Size with Frame:13.25 W x 15.25 H x 1.2 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.