Mc Gourty born in 1954 rejected formal art education, and travelled across Europe working in various occupations from railways to building sites in Germany to picture framing in London. While this lifestyle may not relate to art in its academic forms, the experiences imbued the artist with a collection of images which would later emerge on the canvas.

This and the experiences of childhood have shaped the creative urge. Early life was spent in west Fermanagh, and surrounding counties of Leitrim and Donegal where small holders diced with nature to eke out an existance from rocky soil.

The resulting paintings ,though are not about re- creating landscape ,or a sentimental recall of memory. Thus as in an earlier painting "gleaners" or in the current show "bog grafters" (no 15) or "early sower" (no 14) the figures are frozen on the canvas and also in time.

This is symbolic of a theme or conflict explored by the artist, that of beauty in nature and tragedy of loss. Thus here we have figures toiling in the early morning or late evening, remote and unconscious as the snipe which screeches up from the bogland. The real tragedy is that this type of existance is largely over, only to be replaced by a self conscious, media driven event.

Gerry mcGourtys work continues to evolve as he deals with this subject. The work is widely collected in Ireland and more and more by collectors in The U.K, Europe and the U.S.A.