UNDER THE VOLCANOBACK
The seven paintings in this series are each based on a scene - or moments - in the drama from the novel “Under the Volcano” by Malcom Lowry, combined with biographical knowledge of Lowry and visits to the places in Mexico around which the book was written.
Casino del Selva
(Under the Volcano)
274 x 153 cms
oil on canvas 1984
private collection
Bella Vista Hotel
(Under the Volcano)
137 x 183 cms
oil on canvas 1982
collection The Arts Council
Calle Nicaragua
(Under the Volcano)
127 x 162 cms
oil on canvas 1982
private collection
Yvonne
(Under the Volcano)
167 x 122 cms
oil on canvas 1984
private collection
In the Garden
(Under the Volcano)
137 x 183 cms
oil on canvas 1983
private collection
On the Porch
(Under the Volcano)
137 x 183 cms
oil on canvas 1982
private collection
The Farolito
(Under the Volcano)
214 x 244 cms
oil on canvas 1984
private collection
The novel is written in a way that combines intricate symbolism with a vivid representational surface and an especially close identification with the protagonists on the authors part.
The main protagonist is the British Consul in Quahnuahuac, based on Cuernavaca, the town in Mexico where Lowry lived for a time; the action takes twelve hours on the ‘Day of the Dead’ on 2nd November 1938. It is written on a variety of planes, but Lowry summarised it thus:
“It is concerned with the forces of man which make him terrified of himself. It is also concerned with guilt, remorse, struggles toward the light, doom. The allegory is the Garden of Eden. The drunkenness of the Consul is used to symbolise the universal ‘drunkenness’ of mankind, during the war or during the period leading up to it”
The paintings depict particular moments in the drama chosen for their self-sufficiency and symbolic power.