“Immersive Landscapes and Monotypes”
After studying Art in Paris at Atelier Met de Penninghen, I worked as a graphic designer and Artistic Director. It gave me a strong foundation in looking and drawing but not really into painting images out of my mind.
I moved to Ireland and started to paint outdoors experiencing immersion within the elements and the landscape. I did not expect to be so moved by the magnitude of it all. The sensuality of the gestures mixing paint on the linen, the violence of colours clashing, the energy involved in creating something. I then moved my practice indoors because the images created seemed to come from somewhere else and my subject matter shifted to Color and the ways I could use it to express emotion.
“My language is color because this is how I see things, how I remember events and people sometimes. How I can express emotion or read some people’s energy. I am working through the mediums of painting and printmaking. I cross the techniques and work with my fingers, brushes, scrapers, and sponges to superpose textures and stains.
My subject is the natural world in an abstract form and anything that makes it look different: flood, wind, rain, light, sounds. My front room is just a very large window. I do not have a TV, and the roof is made of metal. It is like being inside the belly of a beast, constantly rolling around. Understanding how plants grow, how animals live around us, and how nature changes is part of what informs my paintings. There is an unstoppable and ever-evolving cycle. Mesmerizing”
In 2021 the filmmaker Charlie Joe Doherty and Folklorist Jamie Mc Garrigle realised a short documentary on my practice that was supported by Creativ Ireland and played on RTE part of the series “Yarns” .