Catherine O'Leanachain

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My present work deals with the dual nature of the West of Ireland Landscape and the magical quality of its mystical islands, more specifically with the intimacy of the land, field, rocks, sheltering trees and residue of human presence versus the majesty of its nature elements, the wild winter sea the rolling howling winds the changing moods of the grey skies. These are all contained in my work but not necessary in a direct narrative way.

I often start by mapping my emotional response to the landscape through photography, quick studies and paintings. Working from the studio, the impetus of the work evolves around the transformation of my initial emotional response into a spiritual one. I am working in a symbolist/ expressionist manner bordering on abstraction. I experiment with mixed media such as pigments, inks and oils. Utilising natural materials like twigs and bog grass to draw. I use symbolic shapes as metaphors, for example Tree and leaves as destiny, flowers as fragility, crosses and tombs as memory, sacred mountains as spiritual transcendence. The tension in my work is derived from a northern restraint and a southern exuberance. I see art as functioning as a cathartic/human/emotional/ link between past, present and future.

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