Seamus Heaney

Oil and gold leaf (23.5 carat) on canvas 24” x 24” (61cm x 61cm)

SEAMUS HEANEY

This painting celebrates his winning of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995.

The laurel leaves (gold leaf) are there to communicate the spirt of poetry and victory.  Behind his head is a medal, it’s ribbon is green, white and orange.  The other section is pillar box red, these represent the duality of his place of birth in Castledawson in Northern Ireland, and is best left in his own words, “An Open Letter”.

“Don`t be surprised if I demure, for be advised

My passport green. 

No Glass of ours was ever raised

To toast the Queen”

The Nobel medal itself is in gold leaf hung from a purple ribbon.