About me
I have always lived near water. From the South East coast of Ireland where I grew up, to the West coast of Ireland, to the Charente Maritime region of France where I now live in a small hamlet beside a river.
From childhood and throughout my life I have felt a strong link with the sea, with the landscape and all the natural world.
When I began to paint regularly in the early 2000s these references to nature began to emerge.
I say emerge because I am not a planner of paintings, but more of an archaeologist of paint.
I generally do not seek a specific end result and am not interested in rendering nature as we generally perceive it. I am interested in how nature mirrors the human condition; birth, death, joy, sorrow, energy, stillness …… it’s all there.
From the moodiness and stillness of the wild Irish landscape to the energy and mayhem of Delhi to the constant insistence of the falling water outside my home.
Having worked alongside children for several in school art projects I found that I identified and admired their non- intellectual approach to creativity. I was as excited by their work as they were to have an artist working alongside them. It is this intuitive approach to art that interests me.
At present and from the banks of the Rochefollet river I am making paintings that suggest the falling water and thinking about how these consistencies of nature are important and precious.
The cycles of nature that we have known have been the background and stage of our lives. The cycles and certainties of nature are now under threat and changing.
How can artists respond to this in a meaningful way? These are questions that will influence my future work.