0:00:02 > 0:00:05The name Basil Blackshaw is a byword in the art world
0:00:05 > 0:00:09in the island of Ireland for over six decades.
0:00:09 > 0:00:13Yet he has remained an enigma, shunning all media attention,
0:00:13 > 0:00:15choosing even to wear a mask
0:00:15 > 0:00:17when attending an exhibition in Cork in 2005.
0:00:21 > 0:00:25This is the story of the maker of some of Ireland's finest paintings,
0:00:25 > 0:00:29of what has informed his work and shaped his direction of travel.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37Basil is a complete artist.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40There's nothing really he can't depict.
0:00:40 > 0:00:46Whether it's a painting of a cock or a horse or a woman
0:00:46 > 0:00:51or a bunch of flowers or a landscape,
0:00:51 > 0:00:56you're looking at much more than the subject,
0:00:56 > 0:01:02you are looking beyond the subject into the artist's own soul.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12He appears to be a very straightforward,
0:01:12 > 0:01:15down-to-earth, rural person, if you like.
0:01:15 > 0:01:17But there's a lot going on underneath that.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27Basil is a unique individual.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31He is maverick, nonconformist...
0:01:32 > 0:01:34..on the edge.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39All these are big, big pluses for an artist.
0:01:41 > 0:01:46When you look through Basil's catalogue, it's extraordinary,
0:01:46 > 0:01:49just the variety of what he paints, day to day,
0:01:49 > 0:01:50one day this, one day the other.
0:01:50 > 0:01:55He is a one-off, he is one of those strange prophets
0:01:55 > 0:01:59in the wilderness that British and Irish art does tend to throw up.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02He is his own man, that's the thing about him.
0:02:02 > 0:02:04He has become a total original.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07There are no easy comparisons.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31Now entering his 83rd year, this edge-of-society man
0:02:31 > 0:02:34lives among the bulrushes in the County Antrim countryside
0:02:34 > 0:02:37with his partner, Helen Falloon.
0:02:40 > 0:02:45I would say my father is a very private man, a very generous man.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48He's not so keen on authority.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50He would toe the line, but he doesn't like to.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53He likes to call a spade a spade,
0:02:53 > 0:02:55and anybody that doesn't call a spade a spade
0:02:55 > 0:02:57I don't think he has much time for.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02Could you imagine yourself not being an artist?
0:03:02 > 0:03:03At one time, I could.
0:03:05 > 0:03:07But not really.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10Not for years and years.
0:03:10 > 0:03:13If you hadn't been an artist, what do you think you might have been?
0:03:13 > 0:03:15A butcher!
0:03:20 > 0:03:25Born in 1932 in Glengormley to an English farmer, Samson Blackshaw,
0:03:25 > 0:03:28and mother Edith Clayton,
0:03:28 > 0:03:31Blackshaw was reared at Boardmills in South Down
0:03:31 > 0:03:35with horses, hounds and the countryside coursing through his veins.
0:03:42 > 0:03:43Basil was a country boy
0:03:43 > 0:03:47as opposed to having any association with the town.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50However, he had gone to Methodist College
0:03:50 > 0:03:53and he was there at the same time as I was, but he was
0:03:53 > 0:03:55a couple of years behind me
0:03:55 > 0:03:58and he then moved up into the art school.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03Entering the Art College in Belfast at 16,
0:04:03 > 0:04:08the precocious Blackshaw immediately made an impression on his teachers.
0:04:11 > 0:04:16The leading influence would have been Romeo Toogood.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20Now, Romeo Toogood had a theoretical capacity
0:04:20 > 0:04:24to stylise the things that he was painting.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30He recognised Basil's talent.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33I remember one day he said to a group of us,
0:04:33 > 0:04:36"Basil is the daddy of you all."
0:04:36 > 0:04:40In other words, he was giving him his place
0:04:40 > 0:04:42as the leading student.
0:04:49 > 0:04:53Once you have got a very straight training,
0:04:53 > 0:04:56you can allow that straight training
0:04:56 > 0:04:58to put boundaries on your work,
0:04:58 > 0:05:01the only breakthrough is
0:05:01 > 0:05:05you've enough skills and experience...
0:05:07 > 0:05:08..to be bold,
0:05:08 > 0:05:10take risks.
0:05:14 > 0:05:16Basil had got an award from Cema,
0:05:16 > 0:05:19which was the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23I spoke a little French and Basil used to joke and say,
0:05:23 > 0:05:27"All the French I have is, 'Avez-vous du wee saucepan?'"
0:05:30 > 0:05:33We had a great time together in Paris,
0:05:33 > 0:05:36we went to the Orangerie, the Louvre,
0:05:36 > 0:05:37the Musee d'Art Moderne...
0:05:40 > 0:05:43I have no doubt that what he saw in Paris went into
0:05:43 > 0:05:45the totality of his experience.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58One of the big early influences, you told me, was Cezanne.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01What was it about Cezanne that so fascinated you?
0:06:01 > 0:06:05I suppose everything that was good about Cezanne,
0:06:05 > 0:06:11the lovely sense of space, and the relationship of one thing to another.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15All I know is that it had some sort of effect on me,
0:06:15 > 0:06:18that made me want to paint,
0:06:18 > 0:06:20that made me want to make marks
0:06:20 > 0:06:23and shapes and forms
0:06:23 > 0:06:27and...get the elements up of art.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40He's psychologically a country man through and through,
0:06:40 > 0:06:42it's not a city man coming down the painting landscape,
0:06:42 > 0:06:44as a release from busy city life,
0:06:44 > 0:06:47he's absolutely in it organically and belongs there
0:06:47 > 0:06:48and understands it.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50It is almost his essence, in fact.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58Simply because he is an artist of the countryside,
0:06:58 > 0:07:04what he has produced as that is so immensely, intensely glorious,
0:07:04 > 0:07:08he is so plugged into that huge, throbbing heart
0:07:08 > 0:07:11of the natural world.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17In 1959, Blackshaw married Anna Ritchie, an Australian artist.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20Three years later their daughter Anya was born
0:07:20 > 0:07:22at their Ravarnet home outside Lisburn.
0:07:25 > 0:07:31He used to change my nappy on the sofa with ten dogs beside me.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35So that is my first recollection of Ravarnet.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44It was just chaos, with people coming
0:07:44 > 0:07:47and going every day of the week.
0:07:47 > 0:07:52There were dog men, vets, dogs, horses,
0:07:52 > 0:07:55anything you could think of, there were lords, ladies,
0:07:55 > 0:07:57painters... Crazy.
0:07:59 > 0:08:00Both my mother and father,
0:08:00 > 0:08:05they had 55 greyhounds in training, of other people's, and their own.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08So it was between dogs and horses mainly.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11That was just their life, that was all there was,
0:08:11 > 0:08:13painting, dogs and horses!
0:08:18 > 0:08:21I always knew our living situation
0:08:21 > 0:08:26and our home situation was slightly different.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36He obviously was so impressed by the environment
0:08:36 > 0:08:39of which he was a part,
0:08:39 > 0:08:43grooming horses and dogs, all that kind of thing,
0:08:43 > 0:08:49that it was inevitable that a lot of his early work should reflect that.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03These works are beautifully observed, he knows animals so well,
0:09:03 > 0:09:05his natural sympathy with them,
0:09:05 > 0:09:08they say he has power over the horses and dogs and so on.
0:09:08 > 0:09:10But these are more than animals,
0:09:10 > 0:09:14they're imbued with traits which are not of the animal kingdom,
0:09:14 > 0:09:15which he puts into them.
0:09:17 > 0:09:21He's clever, he gets the viewer into his own body,
0:09:21 > 0:09:22you actually sense the landscape,
0:09:22 > 0:09:24you sense the tonal qualities of the palette,
0:09:24 > 0:09:28there's almost a sense of feeling the heartbeat of the animal
0:09:28 > 0:09:30he's painting - so it's alive,
0:09:30 > 0:09:31it's not stagnant.
0:09:34 > 0:09:38If you follow any painter's career, you are known
0:09:38 > 0:09:41for subjects,
0:09:41 > 0:09:45but you're a painter first - it doesn't really matter.
0:09:45 > 0:09:50You need something that would trigger your painterly response,
0:09:50 > 0:09:53but it's the response that matters.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01Blackshaw's marriage ended in 1972,
0:10:01 > 0:10:04leading to a turbulent phase in his life.
0:10:04 > 0:10:09During this period he gravitated more and more towards bouts of drinking.
0:10:09 > 0:10:13Everybody crumbled when it came to the end of Ravarnet, really,
0:10:13 > 0:10:16I moved to my old aunt's and uncle's,
0:10:16 > 0:10:19and my father, he moved to his mother's house.
0:10:19 > 0:10:21My mother stayed for a couple of years
0:10:21 > 0:10:23and then moved back over to Australia.
0:10:26 > 0:10:27It was at this time,
0:10:27 > 0:10:31on a trip to Donegal, Blackshaw befriended another creative spirit.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34We had a cottage in Donegal
0:10:34 > 0:10:36where we used to spend all the summer
0:10:36 > 0:10:39and somehow or other, Basil appeared.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42We sort of liked each other.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45And he needed, I think, somebody to talk to.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50He had just broken up with his wife
0:10:50 > 0:10:54and he was sort of... a little bit crazy,
0:10:54 > 0:10:57a little bit depressed - quite a lot depressed.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04I liked him. I liked him very much.
0:11:04 > 0:11:06He was a very nice, decent man.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10He did a lot of drinking, mind you!
0:11:12 > 0:11:16We all went swimming in the nude one night, which was very funny.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18And I expect we were all a bit pissed,
0:11:18 > 0:11:19but we weren't seriously pissed.
0:11:20 > 0:11:24The stars were in the sea, that wonderful thing that happens,
0:11:24 > 0:11:28and when you lift up the water in your hands, it's like stars,
0:11:28 > 0:11:31spilling out of your hands, back into the water again.
0:11:31 > 0:11:32It was great.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40To Jennifer Johnston, Blackshaw's gentle personality was at odds
0:11:40 > 0:11:43with his interest in cockfighting and passion for blood sports.
0:11:49 > 0:11:54The first story he told me about the cockfighting, I was outraged.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57But he just laughed at me, he didn't pay any attention at all.
0:11:57 > 0:11:59He would just go on telling you the stories
0:11:59 > 0:12:03and then he would tell you another one the next time you saw him.
0:12:03 > 0:12:05He was sort of two people, in a way.
0:12:05 > 0:12:07One was the country man
0:12:07 > 0:12:12and the other was this very sophisticated artist
0:12:12 > 0:12:15who really knew what he was doing.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19And yet he couldn't quite believe that he knew what he was doing.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25In the early 1970s, Blackshaw would meet Helen Falloon.
0:12:25 > 0:12:30They went to live outside Antrim town where they have resided ever since.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33It was here that he set up his loft studio.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39How can you explain that you seem to know everything that's
0:12:39 > 0:12:42going on in the art world around the world
0:12:42 > 0:12:44although you're stuck out here in County Antrim?
0:12:44 > 0:12:46How does that happen?
0:12:46 > 0:12:50There are so many magazines and so on about.
0:12:50 > 0:12:51And books and so on.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54- And TV.- Yeah.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57Just... Seeing what's happening.
0:12:58 > 0:13:03Would you say that your studio was where you felt most at peace?
0:13:07 > 0:13:11Probably one of the places, yes. Yeah.
0:13:17 > 0:13:23Disaster struck in 1981 when Blackshaw's studio went on fire.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26This would prove, however, a seminal moment for the artist.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31As the '70s drew to a close, he had been growing increasingly
0:13:31 > 0:13:36restless with his realistic painting and about the direction of his art.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43I gather that studio fire destroyed works in the new style
0:13:43 > 0:13:45and they were lost.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49And of course it was a huge blow to his development.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52But in a sense it gave him tabula rasa, cleared away the past.
0:13:56 > 0:14:03It seemed to push Basil into a more challenging area,
0:14:03 > 0:14:08a much more exciting area of paint,
0:14:08 > 0:14:13where it didn't matter whether it was the dogs
0:14:13 > 0:14:16or whether the tractors,
0:14:16 > 0:14:18or the heads,
0:14:18 > 0:14:24it was becoming... Really, the paint was taking over.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28The paint was dictating where Basil was going.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39The time the studio burnt down, at that time, I was painting
0:14:39 > 0:14:45realistic landscape-type paintings that were getting nowhere.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49You know, I could go and do the same thing all over again,
0:14:49 > 0:14:53any day, it was going to be the same painting,
0:14:53 > 0:14:57good painting, well painted, but it was nothing new.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00Nothing exciting.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03And when the studio burnt down,
0:15:03 > 0:15:09it let me step back and see things as going nowhere.
0:15:18 > 0:15:23Jude Stevens has been Blackshaw's model for more than 30 years.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26Week after week she has climbed these steps into what is
0:15:26 > 0:15:29a house of happy memories for her.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36When I was sitting, this was the spot.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39I would either stand or sit here,
0:15:39 > 0:15:43Basil's easel would be about here,
0:15:43 > 0:15:47and this was the famous stove with which we used to have problems,
0:15:47 > 0:15:50but it certainly heated up, the stove, and it produced a lot of...
0:15:50 > 0:15:55a certain smell, an evocative smell of this place which was amazing.
0:15:55 > 0:15:57In this corner over here...
0:15:59 > 0:16:00It's empty now,
0:16:00 > 0:16:04but there used to be, at one stage, about six birdcages.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14The studio always had a haze of dust
0:16:14 > 0:16:20and the whole place had this kind of rugged, well-used feel to it,
0:16:20 > 0:16:23which I loved, even though it was and still is quite bleak
0:16:23 > 0:16:24and barren in some ways.
0:16:35 > 0:16:40If we take Jude, your model, when she leaves the studio,
0:16:40 > 0:16:43you scrub everything and then you start painting.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47That seems an extraordinary thing to be doing. What's going on?
0:16:48 > 0:16:51Well, it's part of the process
0:16:51 > 0:16:54of making...
0:16:54 > 0:16:57significant marks.
0:16:57 > 0:17:02You want to get away from the making of the subject
0:17:02 > 0:17:05that you knew was going to happen,
0:17:05 > 0:17:08that you knew where you were going to work,
0:17:08 > 0:17:11there's no point in it any more.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13But is it better, the fact that she has gone, then?
0:17:13 > 0:17:15Yeah, you can make a painting then.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35I loved to watch Basil painting.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40He always used to mention Muhammad Ali, and those famous words,
0:17:40 > 0:17:43"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."
0:17:43 > 0:17:46And I think that's what he was doing.
0:17:46 > 0:17:50He needed a lot of space to paint - leaping back from the canvas,
0:17:50 > 0:17:53assessing where the next blow should be,
0:17:53 > 0:17:56then jumping in with the paintbrush, jabbing at it, back again.
0:17:56 > 0:17:58It was a battle.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07I had never been painted by a real artist before
0:18:07 > 0:18:11and I was absolutely mind-blown by it.
0:18:11 > 0:18:16You couldn't see anything except his feet from the knees down,
0:18:16 > 0:18:19and his toes were pointed in, like that.
0:18:19 > 0:18:23And he kept wiggling his feet the whole time, it was really weird.
0:18:23 > 0:18:27He used to fly around the room, it was nearly like dancing.
0:18:27 > 0:18:31And I loved it, I used to sit in the background and watch him paint
0:18:31 > 0:18:34for hours, but it was the energy,
0:18:34 > 0:18:36he had so much energy when he painted.
0:18:36 > 0:18:41He wriggled himself, and the little times you did see bits of him
0:18:41 > 0:18:45come out from behind the canvas, he was sort of wriggling, like a worm,
0:18:45 > 0:18:49like a big worm, a big, fat worm.
0:18:52 > 0:18:57Sitting for Basil Blackshaw was an electrifying experience.
0:18:57 > 0:19:02There was these rubbing and scraping noises.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05Basil, in between bits of conversation,
0:19:05 > 0:19:07was groaning and grunting
0:19:07 > 0:19:10and saying how impossible it was
0:19:10 > 0:19:12and that he'd never get it right.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19He has a rare ability to capture a likeness,
0:19:19 > 0:19:22but it's much more than a likeness.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25It's the soul of the person,
0:19:25 > 0:19:29and it's all of his experience of that person,
0:19:29 > 0:19:33concentrated into one image.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37And when you look at a Basil portrait,
0:19:37 > 0:19:40you feel as though you have met that person
0:19:40 > 0:19:42and that you're getting to know them.
0:19:46 > 0:19:48When it comes to painting portraits,
0:19:48 > 0:19:51people like Brian Friel, Jennifer Johnston etc,
0:19:51 > 0:19:53what goes on in your mind?
0:19:53 > 0:19:57Whatever feeling you get from them.
0:19:57 > 0:20:02I mean, Jennifer Johnston was all this blonde hair and dark glasses,
0:20:02 > 0:20:05which was the main point of that painting.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09So just something like that would hold together
0:20:09 > 0:20:11as you made the painting.
0:20:11 > 0:20:15You did a very celebrated painting of Clint Eastwood,
0:20:15 > 0:20:20which was made from bits of cardboard, bits of newspapers.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23Why did you not simply paint a portrait of Clint Eastwood?
0:20:25 > 0:20:30It didn't have any spirit or any excitement or anything like that.
0:20:30 > 0:20:35Painting a portrait of Clint Eastwood was not going to be enough.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39I mean, I had to do something that was a bit more exciting!
0:20:46 > 0:20:49Like Ireland's best-known artist, Jack B Yeats,
0:20:49 > 0:20:51Blackshaw, in his advancing years,
0:20:51 > 0:20:54was still pushing the boundaries of his art,
0:20:54 > 0:20:57trying to find new ways of expressing himself,
0:20:57 > 0:20:59moving from the '80s into the '90s,
0:20:59 > 0:21:03with a very noticeable step change from 2000 onwards.
0:21:07 > 0:21:12I'm pretty sure he felt like,
0:21:12 > 0:21:15"We've got to push the bound... We've got to move on.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18"It's a journey we're on, we've got to move on."
0:21:21 > 0:21:23He lost his inhibitions about facing a big picture.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25He found he could do it.
0:21:25 > 0:21:27In fact, Basil loves a big canvas now.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30He's the only one in the country who can construct on a big scale.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33The time suited - the new expressionism and all these
0:21:33 > 0:21:34seemed to set him on fire.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37He was never a follower of anybody.
0:21:37 > 0:21:39But he was certainly influenced by new currents, I should think.
0:21:39 > 0:21:41Any good artist is.
0:21:44 > 0:21:48More and more, Blackshaw was now adding words
0:21:48 > 0:21:50and scribbles to his canvas,
0:21:50 > 0:21:52to the point of appearing naive.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56I found that initially off-putting.
0:21:56 > 0:21:58But, after a while, you get used to it
0:21:58 > 0:22:04and you realise the lettering is part of the composition.
0:22:06 > 0:22:11It was Duchamp, the Dada painter, who said,
0:22:11 > 0:22:15"Titles are extra colours."
0:22:15 > 0:22:19And, in this mysterious way,
0:22:19 > 0:22:26Basil adds colour to his paintings with words.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33Well, I think the marks of where you write,
0:22:33 > 0:22:37or the scribbles you write, are part and parcel of the painting.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40Would you feel the painting was right without those marks,
0:22:40 > 0:22:43- without those scribbles? Without...? - No.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46Many people looking at your paintings might consider them childish,
0:22:46 > 0:22:49in many ways. That's not an accident, is it?
0:22:49 > 0:22:52Well, it partly is an accident.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57Because I'm not conscious of... of, er...
0:22:57 > 0:23:03being childish or wanting to be, or trying to be.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06It's just part and parcel of it.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16At the end of the '90s, it was obvious
0:23:16 > 0:23:20that Blackshaw's work was growing more subjective in content.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23The so-called Window series would carry Blackshaw
0:23:23 > 0:23:26right out onto the ledge of abstraction.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34When I saw those at the Ulster Museum,
0:23:34 > 0:23:38I genuinely felt they were the greatest paintings
0:23:38 > 0:23:43that I've seen produced in Ireland in my lifetime.
0:23:44 > 0:23:46They're beautifully painted.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49There's nothing to detract
0:23:49 > 0:23:54from just the purity of the paint on the canvas.
0:23:57 > 0:23:59They are not what you'd call welcoming or friendly pictures,
0:23:59 > 0:24:02but they exercise their own hypnosis, I find.
0:24:02 > 0:24:04And I think the result was enormously courageous,
0:24:04 > 0:24:06in the sense that he seemed to be turning his back on what
0:24:06 > 0:24:09he'd achieved and leaping off in another direction.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12But then that's Basil Blackshaw - he's totally unpredictable.
0:24:12 > 0:24:14If you've been brought up
0:24:14 > 0:24:17on the early, more figurative pictures,
0:24:17 > 0:24:19it must have seemed completely extraordinary
0:24:19 > 0:24:21that he should fly off into something
0:24:21 > 0:24:24that only he really understands,
0:24:24 > 0:24:26but I can't but stand by those...
0:24:26 > 0:24:28I mean, those Windows pictures are...
0:24:28 > 0:24:31the greatest things he's ever done, for me.
0:24:35 > 0:24:41I'm more aware of the presence of Basil in those Windows.
0:24:42 > 0:24:47And how he feels about just being alive.
0:24:48 > 0:24:54But I'm convinced that those are the best works that Basil...
0:24:54 > 0:24:55ever did.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03For the first time, I was able to use space,
0:25:03 > 0:25:07the size of a canvas, for instance. The space...
0:25:07 > 0:25:09To the emptiness of things,
0:25:09 > 0:25:15to the emptiness of what's outside the window, which is a nothingness.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18You don't see anything outside of my Windows.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21They're just...blank spaces.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25The Windows were a subject that was...
0:25:27 > 0:25:30..nothing, in other words. It was...
0:25:30 > 0:25:32the emptiness of things.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43Would you accept that a certain bleakness entered some of your works?
0:25:43 > 0:25:46Well, if you call bleakness, er...
0:25:46 > 0:25:50a sense of space, empty spaces, or...
0:25:50 > 0:25:55Those paintings I made of the empty rooms,
0:25:55 > 0:25:59those are probably the bleakest paintings, I think.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05A lot of the time, you work from visions.
0:26:05 > 0:26:10From where do those concepts, ideas spring in your work?
0:26:10 > 0:26:14A vision can be a piece of paper lying on the floor out there.
0:26:14 > 0:26:16It can suggest a, um...
0:26:18 > 0:26:23..a starting point. Anything can start a starting point.
0:26:25 > 0:26:27So that's really it.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32So are you telling me that if you rose from where you are now,
0:26:32 > 0:26:35and you walked out the door and you bumped into it,
0:26:35 > 0:26:40- that would trigger something which could end up on a canvas?- Oh, yes.
0:26:40 > 0:26:46It can happen at any time, anywhere, any day.
0:26:46 > 0:26:48You never know when it's going to happen.
0:27:03 > 0:27:05There's such a temptation in these days
0:27:05 > 0:27:07to see everything in terms of movements,
0:27:07 > 0:27:10and that's where Basil defies everything.
0:27:10 > 0:27:12That's why he confounds us all.
0:27:12 > 0:27:14If you want to see him in terms of a movement,
0:27:14 > 0:27:18then you're on the wrong track. You're looking at the wrong man.
0:27:20 > 0:27:25There is a delinquent streak in Basil Blackshaw,
0:27:25 > 0:27:29which is hugely releasing and refreshing.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32And an essential part of him.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38He's a late blossomer.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40But he stepped totally out of an Irish context.
0:27:40 > 0:27:42You can't fit him into it.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49He is as good as any painter in Europe that I know.
0:27:49 > 0:27:51In the United Kingdom, I can't think he has any equal.
0:27:51 > 0:27:53There are plenty of good painters in England -
0:27:53 > 0:27:55some of them I greatly respect -
0:27:55 > 0:27:57but they're not remotely of European stature, I would say.
0:27:57 > 0:27:59Basil is.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09He has such an individual...
0:28:09 > 0:28:12look or take on the world
0:28:12 > 0:28:17that we are privileged to have...
0:28:17 > 0:28:22shared through his paintings,
0:28:22 > 0:28:26his way of looking at the world.