Kingerlee's work is steeped in the environment in which he lives, with stony paint laid thick on canvases and paintings which seem hewn from the rock itself. But amid all the monolithic strength of his grid paintings and the atavistic, primordial nature of his head series, there is also a lightness, an airiness, and the touch of a man who has become at one with his adopted land, perched on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, staring resolutely into the infinity of the sea.

Indeed, so pervasive are the land, the sea and the air throughout the work that one could be forgiven for thinking that each painting is more a natural phenomenon than it is the work of a human being.

So how aware is John Kingerlee of the influence of his surroundings when he paints?

"I have grown more conscious of it as it has crept up on me, " he said. "I am constantly absorbing my environment, and that comes out in my work. But this is not really a conscious process, although I can always stop myself to admire something that I see."

While Kingerlee is connected through his work to the land at an almost spiritual level, he is fearful of the impact of economic factors on the environment . . . which is why one of his paintings could be described as an attempt, even at an unconscious level, to preserve by pictorial record the landscape around him.

"There is so much dumping, pollution, destruction of old walls and throwing of concrete rubbish around, " he says. "Irish farmers (although this is not unique to Ireland) seem unconnected to the beautiful land that they have got. The maker of the universe is an amazing and generous being, but we're messing it all up for ourselves."

Regarding Kingerlee paintings, some of which take months, even years to complete, one is struck by the feeling that there is an elemental process to their creation, a process which is subtly steered by the hand of a master artist. Indeed, while some painters are meticulous in their design, Kingerlee's paintings, even those of a geometric plan, seem more akin to stone formations which have been part of the landscape for aeons.

"My works tend to evolve themselves, " he explained. "I don't know at the start what they are going to look like, and even if I try, they never seem to turn out the way I had planned. When I am painting, the work takes over."

Kingerlee began working with his grid paintings in 1999, although he maintains an interest in painting both heads and landscapes (which he describes as "white out" paintings). But it is his grids about which he is currently most enthused, which should come as little surprise. The public, it appears, cannot get enough of them, and a recent record price of $156,000 was paid for a Kingerlee grid at Sotheby's in New York.

"I feel that I have evolved as a painter, although I am very much settled into grids, " he said. "I feel that the world could do with a lot more of these, and I am really happy with them. But I will always go to a place (in my work) that is new and surprising, and I need to be able to recognise this in myself."

And is he surprised by the public's reaction to his paintings?

"I have been very surprised by how much people are willing to pay for my paintings, " he says. "I really like my work, but what people value in the world today is money. So, if they are willing to pay large sums of money, I hope that that means that they also value my works."