The Artist
Denis Maguire
was born in Belfast, N.Ireland, in 1950. He moved to live near
Crewe in 1975 to join ICL as a programmer after receiving an
honours degree in maths and an Msc in Computer Science at Queen's
University, Belfast.
He works
as a contractor in IT and regrettable turned down a career as
a professional footballer and a stage career. He has played
most sports; enjoys theatre; plays guitar and hopes a song of
his goes to the USA this summer.
e has recently
joined the Sandbach Voices choir as a meeting place for people
as he cannot play sport anymore (injuries get you in the end;
never mind age!). He is a tenor and has always enjoyed team
games. This is a big test for him! He intends to leave IT this
year. At grammar school he was made by the head to drop Art
and do Science because he was supposed to be clever (?). He
won two prizes in UK art competitions at around the age of 14.
Two years
ago he saw paintings in the Lake District which he was going
to buy but his wife said "Why don't you have a go as you
can't play sport now". So
he started painting as a hobby. Everybody he knows or has heard
of specialise in a niche, say scenery, animals etc. He'll paint
anything! As he says:
"To
paint I have to have a real reason for doing it. It's an emotional
thing and it has to inspire me, eg like the crashing wave
(me!) or "Eyes for You!" (love).
He has not
yet displayed his art work in exhibitions but has been asked
to exhibit in London and more recently Nantwich.
"Someone
told me my work is representational but isn't everything?
Most of my work is in watercolour but my two recent ones are
in oil ("Alien" and "Stone Talk"). He
would like his next paintings to be in oil and abstract (not
that he knows anything about abstract except that he would
like his imagination and thoughts to take over; an example
of this he has tried to display in "Alien", "Stone
Talk" and "Healing Hands".
After a
long IT contract working away from home he has finally started
painting again and has produced an abstract sketch and this
week he will it make come alive with a few colours! He currently
lives in Alsager, in Cheshire.
Denis can
be contacted by email at:
johnmcgrogan@hotmail.co.uk.
