Souvenir of St Valery

The subject of these new paintings is a hundred years of time in one place, St Valery en Caux, a small French seaside town to the east of Dieppe . Hughie O'Donoghue visited the town on 7th July 2005 to research and photograph images relating to the capture of the 51st Highland Division in June 1940, a subject preoccupying him at that time. He spent most of the day, however, listening to the reports of the events unfolding in London .

The terrible events in London and the chance discovery, a few days later, of a photograph album that recorded a holiday in St Valery in the high summer of 1904, led the artist to a deeper and more complex link to this place, evoking the themes of history and memory that have preoccupied him over many years.

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