Deoch an Doruis by Blandine Anderson
Acrylic & oil on canvas
50 x 50 x 3.5cm
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Deoch an Doruis Gaelic for: ‘a drink at the door’ or a ‘stirrup cup’. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, thousands upon thousands of Scottish and Irish crofters were expelled from their homes by those who valued profit above humanity. In the early twentieth century many more followed, particularly islanders, leaving their homes voluntarily once they had become seduced by the ‘pleasures’ and ‘conveniences’ of the outside world. Most of them would not have possessed the means to supply a stirrup cup to ease their departure. I wonder how many of those in exile longed for the view from their door and recalled the last time that they saw it. In the ruins of these once bustling homes, there is now falling stonework and crumbling plaster. Often the outline of a door and the large threshold-stones remain. The painting remembers the people who have passed through these doorways.