This was painted in the Spring of 1998, during my first fellowship at Ballinglen. I had spotted the stack while on my way from Ballycastle to Belderrig. It stands silently, close to the coast, and with a hypnotic presence. Discovering it was like encountering an old friend. My work has always been concerned with the single image, possibly stemming from my obsession with the late Rembrandt’s. It was through Rembrandt that I discovered the power of paint and while my early work was concerned with the human image by 1998 it had moved to landscape. However, the landscapes: a pool, a stack or a hill, are also very much concerned with the single image and are essentially portraits. This particular painting was my first painting of a sea stack and in that it represents an important link in a chain of paintings that followed.            - Patrick Harris