Lot 34 Basil Blackshaw

Basil Blackshaw RHA RUA b. 1932 TOMMY ORR, BLACKSMITH Oil on canvas 25 1/2'' x 31 1/2'' (65cm x 80cm); signed, dated '85 verso. 'Orr- the Blacksmith', for the first time two literary images immediately came to mind, Heaney's 'Door into the Dark' but more especially the Spanish writer Miguel Delibes's 'El Camino'.. Herein lay the beautiful description of the blacksmith at work. ''Con frecuencia el herrero trabajaba en camiseta y su pecho herculeo subia y bajaba al aspirar come si fuera el de un elefante herido.'' ''His chest rising and falling as he breathed like a wounded elephant'' Blackshaw's portrayal of Tommie Orr is strictly informed by observation of this artisan at work. He was in and out of forges all around county Down even when he was a child, going there to get ponies shod. On this occasion he had joined Perry Moorhead who was having his horse shoed by Tommie. One can imagine tyhe craic, banter and chaffy gossip passing among these country fold. Blackshaw said ''It was just when I was standing there in the forge that I got the vision. It was quite dark in the forge and of course you had the plumes of white smoke from the horses feet, when Tommie was fitting the hit shoes. It was one of those times when you had a chance to take in what was really going on around you.'' said the artist. His choice of colour in portraying the ambience of the inside of the single storey building on the Comber/Killyleagh Road in County Down is no accident. Blackshaw was so at home in this environment, yarning and conversing in an era when numerous horses and their owners came together, in the words of Patrick Kavanagh ''more devilment than for work.'' The age of Tommie Orr has passed regrettably but we are fortunate in having the Heaneys, the Delibeses and the Blackshaws of that period to capture the quintessence of what we were. Eamon Mallie,2010, from a conversation with Basil Blackshaw.