... began in 2017 when I was thinking about the idea of paradise as a walled garden. There is an ever-changing perfection in the relationship between sea, sky, land, night and day where I live. The depths of information and infinite combinations have all the markers of a bucolic paradise.
Utopia "an imagined 'place' or state of things in which everything is perfect." has a twist in that its origin is ‘ou topos’ or no place. Inherent in the idea of perfection is the sense of non-existence.
As a painter I have recourse in the space of the canvas. It is my utopia, that area where I can find a perfect form, where I have first and last say in the structure and atmosphere. So the criteria for each of these works is that it’s elements must relate to one another in such a way as to create the exact right or true alignment
-for me.
Utopia "an imagined 'place' or state of things in which everything is perfect." has a twist in that its origin is ‘ou topos’ or no place. Inherent in the idea of perfection is the sense of non-existence.
As a painter I have recourse in the space of the canvas. It is my utopia, that area where I can find a perfect form, where I have first and last say in the structure and atmosphere. So the criteria for each of these works is that it’s elements must relate to one another in such a way as to create the exact right or true alignment
-for me.
Sublime Reverie i-ix - shown at the Claremorris Gallery in April 2018
** and again (xv, xviii, xxii, xxv and January Tuam)
December 2024
in CONVERGING CONTOURS | a winter group
xiv- xviii shown at ‘Experiments and Considerations - The Dream Drawing at Aras Inis Gluaire, Belmullet in November 2019
All works are 45x35cm or 17.7x13.7"
acrylic on board
** and again (xv, xviii, xxii, xxv and January Tuam)
December 2024
in CONVERGING CONTOURS | a winter group
xiv- xviii shown at ‘Experiments and Considerations - The Dream Drawing at Aras Inis Gluaire, Belmullet in November 2019
All works are 45x35cm or 17.7x13.7"
acrylic on board
Experiments and Considerations - The Dream Drawing and Sublime Reverie- Winter
Aras Inis Gluaire, Belmullet. November 2019
Experiments in Listening - currents, acrylic on board 60x80cm 2024
Showing at Mount Congreve Winter Exhibition until December 23rd 2024.
Europe in the Heart of Ireland Exhibition, now at Hamilton Gallery, Sligo
Previously at Europa Gallery, 11 Chatham Street, Dublin
Image: Gravitating Towards, 30x30cm acrylic on board 2024
Previously at Europa Gallery, 11 Chatham Street, Dublin
Image: Gravitating Towards, 30x30cm acrylic on board 2024
Kwaidan- Encounters with Lafcadio Hearn
an exhibition of prints by 20 Japanese and 20 Irish-based artists, touring in Japan and Ireland
Winter 2024: The Hunt Museum, Limerick.
image: Hy Horai, aquatint, 2023
In September 2023 I was on residency at Uillinn, The West Cork Arts Centre. I was following up on some research for my upcoming book Irish Moss of a Dead Man’s Skull (The Owl Circus) creating Experiments in Listening. I had the opportunity to make more internalum paintings while I was there. I was quite taken by the colour of the water and spent the month moving between the studio and the sea.
I received bursary funding from Fingal Arts Office for the residency and Mayo Arts Office in preparation. I am extremely grateful for this funding as it is what makes the work possible.
The works and photos are concurrent. I don’t work from the photos. What they do is show what I am looking at and recording and choosing afterwards as the representations of that time, place and internal workspace.
Experiment into the Depth of a Blue while it is in Relation to a Slice of Orange
acrylic on board 50x60cm 2023
Experiment into the Effect the Distraction of a Bright Colour can have on the Bodymind
acrylic on board 60x80cm 2023
Experiment into Regularity of Form and its Effect on ones Mood acrylic on board 2023 Selected for the RHA Annual Exhibition 2023 (private collection)
Precursor Experiment 60x80cm acrylic on board 2022
Experiment into the right angle necessary to create a gentle upturn of spirits,
60x80x4cm acrylic on board 2022. Selected for the RHA Annual Exhibition 2022
LARGER WORKS on canvas
In the spirit of time being non linear and an interval of space I am including here work made in 2020 and 2021 as these works are part of a body of work which is still in progress, still developing.
An Apparition of Colour, acrylic on canvas 2022 (private collection)
mixture of earth/answer x time, 85x100cm, acrylic on canvas
a slight mixture of the fine powder of bise, 85x100cm, acrylic on canvas
An Apparition of Colour - pink, acrylic on canvas 2023
An Apparition of Colour - warm, acrylic on canvas 2023
An Apparition of Colour - reflective, 2023
reflectiveness of the paint and of the aluminium sheets cut to the shape of the dream drawing.
Sonorous Waves ii, 90x110cm, acrylic on canvas, 2024
Internalum - an invented word has its roots in internal (intrinsic) added to the neuter -um (neither one thing or another).
as above so below- body.
This work maps internal space, invisible to the eye, but known, felt. It externalises an abiding fascination with the space inside. It is made in awareness of the subtle body, where colour and form can be felt out and structure shifted until a rightness or truth is felt and recorded.
as above so below- body.
This work maps internal space, invisible to the eye, but known, felt. It externalises an abiding fascination with the space inside. It is made in awareness of the subtle body, where colour and form can be felt out and structure shifted until a rightness or truth is felt and recorded.
Internalum i- viii shown at ‘As Above So Below’, The Linenhall Art Centre, Castlebar, Co. Mayo in April 2017.
Internalum x-xix shown at ‘Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours’ at Customs House Gallery, Westport, Co. Mayo in April 2019
All works 45x35cm (17.3x13.3”)
acrylic on board
Internalum x-xix shown at ‘Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours’ at Customs House Gallery, Westport, Co. Mayo in April 2019
All works 45x35cm (17.3x13.3”)
acrylic on board
In 2019 I made body paintings as experiments in colour.
Robert Boyle used the terms Diaphanous Bodies, Shining Bodies and Colour’d Bodies repeatedly throughout his treatise on colour.
I used Metallic, iridescent and interference paint to experiment with light and time.
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Robert Boyle used the terms Diaphanous Bodies, Shining Bodies and Colour’d Bodies repeatedly throughout his treatise on colour.
I used Metallic, iridescent and interference paint to experiment with light and time.
2023 Internalum made in Uillinn, The West Cork Art Centre in Skibbereen.
I was there for a month making Experiments in Listening.
all 48x38cm, acrylic on paper
“As above, so below, as within, so without, as the universe, so the soul…”
― Hermes Trismegistus (maybe, it could be that he said the first and the latter was added by others, occultists maybe. With alchemy you never know)
In this instance above is the blue, reflective, clouded, infinite sky. Below is the bodies of land, of water, the body of body.
as above so below i-xi shown at Claremorris Gallery April 20..
All works are 45x35cm or 17.7x13.7"
acrylic on board.
All works are 45x35cm or 17.7x13.7"
acrylic on board.
I have long been fascinated by the small openings in the clouds which reveal the brightest of blues. Since 2016 I have observ’d and documented these. As above so below - sky.
Sky Colour’d i-iv shown at ‘As Above So Below’, The Linenhall Art Centre, Castlebar, Co. Mayo in April 2017.
All works are 45x35cm or 17.7x13.7"
acrylic on board.
All works are 45x35cm or 17.7x13.7"
acrylic on board.
Video walkthrough of exhibition ‘As Above So Below’ at The Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar. Co. Mayo 2017
Text and Voice: Nuala Clarke and Crystal Gandrud.
Text and Voice: Nuala Clarke and Crystal Gandrud.
