"One cannot ..... enjoy his work. It has none of the cosy introspection of so much modern Irish painting. It does not traffic in rich colours. It is far from being sensuous, in either subject or treatment.
"It simply hammers on with its theme of desolation and oppression. But it does so with a consistency and an impact that marks out Wade as a highly individual talent."
- Bruce Arnold
Jonathan Wade was a single-minded artist. With few exceptions one basic theme preoccupied him throughout his career. Just what this theme was, and some of its possible ramifications, have already been discussed. In this concluding section it only remains to describe some of the paintings in greater detail.
For convenience, they have been divided into three distinct chronological periods. The first two relate directly to the two One Man Exhibitions which marked their culmination - the Ely Place exhibition of 1968 and the Project Exhibition of 1970 respectively. Finally, the work which occupied Wade during the last eighteen months or so of his life has been identified as a third distinct period.
