‘Our Infinite Land’. Taking Hugh MacDiarmid’s decrial ‘Scotland small? Our multiform, our infinite Scotland small?’ Royal Scottish Academy. June/July 2019

The Patient North 40 x 40 cms mixed media on wood panel.

My Heart Always Goes Back to the North, Hugh MacDiarmid, and the last lines of the poem:

But my heart always goes back to the North,

With its mingling of fire and ice, of black lava, green fell, blue firth,

‘When all that ever hotter sprites expressed

Comes bettered by the patience of the North.”

(The last two lines are quoted from Samuel Daniel’s poem, Musophilus 1599).

The objects in the foreground reference the polyhedron in Durer’s engraving Melancholia and The Terrible Crystal poem of MacDiarmid, and originally, the biblical ‘terrible crystal’ – Ezekiel 1:22.

1 thought on “‘Our Infinite Land’. Taking Hugh MacDiarmid’s decrial ‘Scotland small? Our multiform, our infinite Scotland small?’ Royal Scottish Academy. June/July 2019”

Dear Professor Howard, we own a work by you entitled “Flag” which we bought in Edinburgh in the ’90s, when we lived there. The work has travelled with us to 3 continents and many abodes. In that time, the work has suffered some damage and we would be most grateful if you would be able to recommend to us someone that you would trust to restore the work.
We can supply photos if required.