Colour Run

The Colour Run series of works were created between 2018 and 2020. Cristín Leach describes one of the paintings, ‘The Red Flag’, in her essay ‘Finding Form in a Fluid Thing’, written to accompany the exhibition ‘Finding Form’ , McKenna Gallery, Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge, Co. Kildare, 2023.

‘Stroude’s painting, The Red Flag is the most colourful work in a mostly monochrome show. It depicts a scene in which figures including children move through yellow and pink smoke, on what looks like a local sports pitch, as gable ends, mountains and streetlamps are captured against a grey sky. There are arms about to flail, legs about to move, and one kid holds a small red flag. It’s a painting about the ordinary extraordinary to be found in everyday life. But The Red Flag also invites reflection on ways in which meaning and context can be lost over time if not recorded, preserved, and reflected on.

A colour run is an untimed fun-run in which participants start off wearing white and end up doused in bright colours by the end, usually organised as a charity fundraiser, and borrowing from traditions associated with the Hindu festival of Holi. The Red Flag is a painting about a community event, but there is more. Visually, there are echoes of conflict – flares, teargas, fire in the colours, and implied in the title too, a warning. In 2023, it sparks secondary thoughts of the place of children in a world facing climate crisis. It reflects on ideas about suburban places made temporarily wild, the meaning of community, the place of joy, silliness, fun, the humans stepping outside comfort zones and breaking societal norms, but in an organised, permitted way.’

Cristín Leach 2023