Rising, 2021
'Specialising in oil painting, I seek to explore my personal connection with the sea and nature by abstracting the natural world into movement, light, colours and the emotions they evoke. I love the idea of layers of the ocean, the layers of different temperatures, colours, all moving and flowing interspersed with light. The light finding its way through.
It makes me think of a city teeming with colours, movement, lights, and people, yet a space where the mind escapes from that.
I love the feeling of weightlessness and complete immersion in the ocean, supported by the water, belonging, connecting with it, quiet, letting my mind fill with the space, movement and colours around me.
I prefer working with oil paint and palette knife, varying the technique depending on the desired expression and the subject matter. For example, the energetic application of the paint into heavy layers of textures in the ‘Wave’ series express the huge weight, the power and force of the buildup of the wave, compared with the slow methodical application of one strand of colour at a time in the underwater ‘What Lies Beneath’ series creating a sense of solitude and stillness within the continuous movement of the currents. The pieces often include raised, textured edges from the palette knife application, forming a rhythm on the canvas which makes the view different from every angle and gives the feeling of movement.
I imagined the idea of my own momentary space in the ocean, as if it was a solid and I’d carved out my own niche, my own spot, just for that instant as I dived in, living in the moment feeling supported by the world around me as I moved through it in my solitary space.
Our lives bring us further from the natural world, we need to feel the pulse of nature to keep the connection. I’ve been painting moving nature for a while now, a mini series at the moment, the speed we pass it by, or it passes us by. The wild flowers on the side of the road, often in the middle of the motorway, sometimes as close as we get.
I have loved painting from a young age. After a year in art college in Galway, and a BA (Hons) degree in Fashion and Textile design, I worked in clothing design for many years before beginning work as an artist in 2016.
I love swimming, snorkelling, and sailing.'
Series include ‘The Wave’, ‘Calm’, and ‘What Lies Beneath’