I am a self-taught oil painter living on the East coast of Ireland and a member of the Dublin Painting & Sketching Club. I took up the brush in my mid-twenties and it is the one pursuit I have yet to put down. There is something primal about paint and mark-making that has lodged itself deep inside me. When I gaze upon a good artwork it acts like a meditation, bringing one back to ones own consciousness for a moment. I hope my work induces that same reaction in the watcher.
I have 3 main goals and 3 main styles of painting:
- Firstly, portraits. It is my goal to become as fine an oil painter as Sir William Orpen. Quite a vague goal, not specific, nevertheless, that is the goal. I wish to be able to capture a sitter from life in a short time as efficiently, economically and as skillfully as he could.
- Secondly, plein air. I wish to capture and document Irish life and countryside on scene. To share a moment, from my eyes to yours.
- Thirdly, Symbolism. I wish to paint ‘whatever shines forth’ from the unconscious, be it a sentence, a thought or a dream and to manage it as expertly as Watts or Beksinski.
Recently, I have been focusing on producing as many small portraits as I can in an attempt to build up those muscles and also to explore texture and variety of paint application in my plein air artwork.