A large watercolour signed and dated 1902 James Arthur Henry Jameson (Irish - from the Jameson Whiskey family). At 26.5 by 19.5 inch image size in a tasteful solid oak frame (glazed) - this is a large watercolour, both in terms of it's physical size and the grandiosity and depth of thought in it's creation. Masterpiece is not a word that one would use to describe it. It is as much a part  of the nature that it depicts. As though no hand painted it. So much so that one feels that the artist has been absorbed into it and is still timelessly within it. I think it likely that this is somewhere in Donegal as it is well known for its sea-stacks and Jameson has painted other pictures of Donegal.
       I find the image quite compelling. The loud punch of dynamic pervasive light derived from an exquisitely and sensitively elicited sunburst through wonderfully complex clouds (as though physically grabbed from the sky and deposited on paper) reflects light back up to the roof of a cliff arch and sea-stack in the right foreground which leads top right diagonally down to left so as to join with the receding line of cliffs such that the upward reflected light creates a bright luminism in what would otherwise be a dark shadow on the underside of the arch and shaded side of a stack. The same upwardly directed light prevents the Kittiwakes appearing in dark shadow silhouette. The silence so created by the arched shelter from this maelstrom of light and echoing characteristic cries of the Kittiwakes is the only place that the sea really impinges, or makes an appearance as itself, in a pool of vivid emerald green, a nod to the paintings' Irish roots, contrasted, accentuated and highlighted most excellently, with the blue shades of shadow and rock, all set off by the glistening white of the Kittiwake in the nearer foreground, as though this near backdrop it's crown or halo. This cameo is enough, the sea is subsequently forgiven for its benign role as a mirror in the rest of the painting. The quality of the light in this enclave is caught very naturalistically by virtue of the translucent nature of watercolour which smooths out what would otherwise in reality be a dynamic shimmer of moving brightness... The perspective is added to by the Kittiwakes disappearing into a cloud of small and then tiny white dots at the end of the receding line of cliffs, the considered gradation of their diminishing size projecting the knowledge that there are clearly thousands more birds beyond sight, again, the birds caught from both above in the sunburst and also from upward reflected light, so as to contrast with the darker cliffs and thus visible into the far distance, so temporaly drawing out the experience of seeing by the viewer by demanding focus.... . The calm sea reflects light back up to the cliffs, which would otherwise be in possession of dark shade, flooding the whole scene with light so that the  farthest cliffs blend into the distant clouds. The flight of the birds makes one aware of an unseen all pervading on-shore breeze driven by the warming air derived from the action of sun on the rock, which lifts them and those beyond sight, together  with it, up the face of the cliffs. What a wonderful way to express warmth in an image over and above the use of colour. The bird's reflection in the smooth mirror of the calm sea in the foreground is itself juxtaposed upon the reflection in the sea beneath them of the cliffs behind and above them, adding another layer to the aerial perspective. The flat calm of the sea; a total illusion that cannot be unimagined through the engaging nested complexity of reflections.
            This is really a beautifully balanced painting, both in terms of colour and composition and it's large size accentuates, makes visible and best use of the translucence that watercolour brings to its subject matter. The size of the painting and the aerial perspective also emphasizes and brings to life the immense scale of the subject and the harmony of the birds adapted perfectly in their own and this grande and I think superlative depiction of nature. I always ask myself if Turner would have liked a painting, as he was known for buying paintings at auction.. And I think that he would have approved of this one and bid on it. The composition, in fact - position of the sun on the peak - use of birds -- does resemble Turner's Blue Rigi and I would even say that I think the painting compares favourably with it !! (The birds in the foreground and rock arch allow the viewer an interesting, somewhat mystical, tangible and inviting way into the scene - whilst The Blue Rigi hovers in the distance - reward at contemplative journies end)(I have included a picture of Turner's painting above. It is not included in this sale.) Perhaps we even have here Ireland's own 'Blue Rigi'.
         The picture itself  -with the exception of some foxing in the sky top left, still brings home the majesty and dynamism of the scene 123 years after it was painted. 

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