OVER the past year director Sé Merry Doyle has been in the process of making a documentary about the life of the Irish artist Bernard Canavan, often referred to as The Emigrant’s Artist and the Painter of The Diaspora.
A special preview screening was recently held at the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith, London to raise funds to bring the production Theocracy - The Emigrant’s Artist by Loopline Films to final completion.
The event also included an art auction of Canavan’s work — where four artworks were donated for auction to raise funds for the film.
A new documentary focuses on the work of emigrant artist Bernard CanavanCanavan’s paintings of the diaspora, capture the pain of women and men, girls and boys, leaving home; the indignity of the boat train, the harshness of the building sites, the crowded pubs where men went ‘home’ to drink their dinner.
This was a world of subbies, piece work, being ‘on the lump’, digging the tunnels; as well as the peak era of the Irish nurses who formed the back bone of the NHS.
Bernard Canavan’s art focuses on the Irish diaspora. His works are inspired by his own personal experience of working as a navvy in England in the 1950s.
Canavan's work is inspired by his own experience as a member of the Irish diasporaIn 2018 the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins awarded the prestigious Presidential Award to Bernard Canavan for his contribution to Irish culture in the UK.
