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:
denismaguire@hotmail.com.
