Hannah Tucker
Influenced by her time spent working at the Natural History Museum Hannah uses photomontage and collage to create imagined integumentary systems. Often dismantling images in order to build new ‘skins’ or ‘covers that fuse the natural and man-made. Camouflaging and disguising the original images using black and white screen prints, feathers morph into hair, a city scape merges with oil tankers.
Taking a Break
Collage / photomontage
Bird in the sky
Collage / photomontage
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Anne Marie Stanley
I was born in NY and lived there until my teens . I now live in Cork where I have a studio. I was educated at UCC and the Crawford College of Art. My practice is as a figurative painter . I work primarily in oil and often the figure is placed in a contemporary setting. The paintings span both the real and imagined world . Life drawing has been a central part of my artistic practice and most paintings begin with a sketch from life and are then worked up further in the studio. I have exhibited widely in Cork and Dublin and had an exhibition planned for Munich summer 2020 but due to Covid 19 this has been postponed until 2021.
Nightwalking XDR
Oil on canvas. H56cm x W40cm
Nightwalking LP
Oil on canvas H 56cm x W 40cm
Nightwalking SDR
Oil on canvas. H40cm x W 50cm
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Katrīna Tračuma
The prevailing theme in the work of multidisciplinary visual artist Katrīna Tračuma is humankind’s estrangement from nature, as viewed through the lens of our relationships with other species. Explored primarily through the medium of painting, while utilising bright pigments and striking colour combinations. Bold brushstrokes are balanced with intricate details in a language of symbolic imagery and metaphors, drawing attention to matters of our environment in an engaging way. Born in 1993, in Latvia, Katrīna now lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland while she pursues her MFA studies at Belfast School of Art. Since graduating she has exhibited extensively throughout Europe and has been awarded the Visual Arts Award at the Galway Fringe Festival in 2018, as well as the Backwater Studios Graduate Residency Award and the Joan Clancy Gallery prize. As a professional member of Visual Artists Ireland, her work is in many private and public collections worldwide.
Mumu
Acrylic, ink and oil paint on canvas, 50cm by 80cm, 2019. A diptych painting that features the image of a transparent Holstein Friesian cow. Though the reference photograph for this painting was taken in a field somewhere near Ring, County Waterford it speaks of how globalised the dairy industry is. Originating from the Dutch provinces of North Holland and Friesland, and Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany, Holstein Friesian cows are known as the world’s highest-production dairy animals. Common in fields across the world. This cow is of purple tint in reference to the most popular colour used to signify luxury and decadence in chocolate goods worldwide. Though locally we might associate these symbols with personal environments, they are really global markers of capitalism.
Crossing
Acrylic painting on found discarded sponge, with candy. Featuring a moose crossing symbol, this work is about questioning the rightful claim to ownership of land. These signs are are erected by humans, for humans; warning us of possible dangers along roads as these can result in collisions. However, humans are always the trespassers in these animals territories. What are their warning signs for us? This work will either entice or repel you with its sickly candy smell. Original size is about 9cm by 15cm and no more than 5cm in depth.
The weight of the world
An evolving piece of sculptural installation featuring a variety of Tayto crisp packets stacked on the floor, weighted by a heart shaped blue stone bearing the inscription of the word You. A found and discarded object assemblage that makes a commentary on the sense of place within the island of Ireland in reference to a food item that features heavily in popular culture and the publics general collective consciousness. This piece is also the result of observations on what we leave behind when we visit nature, and what is ultimately our legacy – the waste that makes up the geologic record of our current epoch of the Anthropocene.
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Elaine Mcginn
Born in Belfast,1963. Elaine McGinn graduated from the University of Ulster Belfast and went on to study MSC Art therapy in Queens university Belfast in 2006. Her Performance and drawings respond to an embodied art practice, engaging with the connections between inner transformation and societal change. Alongside teaching and community work, McGinn has consistently produced works both locally and internationally and has recently taken part in Rebel live Action “Eco Art” international performance festival, Bangkok, Thailand and South Korea. An active member of Bbeyond performance art Belfast, McGinn casts a net over an ocean of experience and extracts her truths trough variegated metaphor.
Kissing the Cloth
To the women determined to restore the divine that has been pummelled out of memory, Pollen Studios Belfast. Photo credit: Shiro Masuyama
Untitled
A love letter to our earth, during a time of overwhelming change and altering perceptions. Photo Credit: Danielle Harper
Boundary
Natural boundaries, Tar on Fabriano.
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Ciara Connolly
Drawing & Painting tutor at CTI Senior College, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, Ciara Connolly first qualified in Textile Design before embarking on postgraduate studies in Art Education, Creative Studies & Research Methodologies. Working in 2D, 3D & digital art she describes her work as haptic poems that translate the textures & materials we encounter everyday. Creating woven paintings & pleated drawings, Connolly shares her creative process with the viewer and offers an alternative insight into traditional domestic crafts. Inspired by composition in music & literature, she uses imagery from nature as a metaphor for the creative process through which art is made. Sketchbooks are an essential element in all her collections, moving the viewer through the painstaking process by which artworks are made, from initial ideas through to the completed artwork that celebrates biodiversity, art & place.
Visible 1
Visible 2
Digital Photographic Collage on board
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Sinéad Smyth
Sinéad Smyth’s work is based largely on emotional response and is derived from everyday observations of people, landscapes (real and imagined) co-dependencies and their narratives. She records in writing, drawing and photography, developing drawings, paintings and installations from various stances and instances. Her work often captures the essence of her chosen subject, creating the illusion of detail, through energetic mark making focusing on impressionistic abstraction. Sinéad is an activist for sharing the work of artists and creating collaborative projects. She has founded several arts projects, most recently the Imagine project with Hambly & Hambly Gallery, developed during the 2020 Lockdown in response to Covid 19 and currently shows work from over 1.5k International artists. She has exhibited across Ireland, Northern Ireland, London and Europe. She is currently creating work for a group show of International artists in Mumbai, India.
Still Life
Since the beginning of this lockdown I’ve been drawn to the idea of bringing the ‘outside’ in. Imagining life out in the world around us still happening …in real time, enacted off polished surfaces, reflections of light on a cup, a jug, a vase of flowers. Exploring household items, remembering how these arrived on my shelves and in my cupboards. Thinking of the friends and family that gifted these to my home, the connections between vessels and home, symbols of plenty and memory and weaving these into my painting practice. Ive been using my painting practice to make sense of this waiting, hoping, holding your breath and being still. Still life goes on. This painting for me accentuates the unlimited freedom in the sky above us, the growth of life that continues around us and the idea that we are all vessels, holding ourselves and our families together. These thoughts are deeply grounding and healing for me in these difficult times. This piece reflects my favourite place as Home.
The importance of breathing
During the past few months the meaning of this piece has emerged more clearly. Even in confinement we can retreat to our favourite places…or the memories of those places in our mind. I have an alter ego which is only at peace alone in the company of trees. Where their sounds and presence allow me to breathe more easily. Away from the suffocating ideologies of human society. The importance of breathing need hardly be stressed. It provides the oxygen for the metabolic processes; literally it supports the fires of life. But breath as “pneuma” is also the spirit or soul. We live in an ocean of air like fish in a body of water. By our breathing we are attuned to our atmosphere. If we inhibit our breathing we isolate ourselves from the medium in which we exist.
the boy and the sea
He was afraid of water, didn’t like the feeling of it around him. Through persistence by his mother and weekly dread, he overcame fear in small movements, centimetres of depth and several years in time. Little by little and second by first hated and eventually loved second, he developed an understanding and rejoiced in the freedom of being submerged. Feelings of insecurity morphed into competence and safety. From strangeness and discomfort grew a sense of peace and belonging. Allowing the water, allowing himself. A favourite place established through conquering fear, creating a unique relationship and the eventuality of time. Although, he still doesn’t like to get his hair wet.
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Terry Tedstone
I was reasonably able at Art in Primary School in Kington, Herefordshire…Drawing horse heads when 6 or 7 and elephants at 8, I got 1st prize for Junior Art in the school when 11. When my father died we came to mum’s ( Mary the Boss Doherty) hometown…Buncrana…where Art was not a subject in primary and only taught in a haphazard way in the Technical School. I think my ability compared to others spurred me on to take Art more seriously. My mum died a few months after and my older sister, her baby and I were looked after by my aunt Cissie and uncle Johnny Gill in the front row of Castle Park with a beautiful view. (This house was occupied by Liam and Paul Rodden’s family before Gills ). I started work as a shirt cutter in February 1968 and quickly sided into the creative end of Pattern Cutting and Design. Did some night classes in Art in 1970 71 (Hobby and A level). Cutting room mngr revived Pantomime in 1976 and I have been scenery artist (and Camel etc maker) since. Joined Inishowen Carnival in 1995 where my costume making abilities brought me semi proffesional status…this has continued and I have done recent parades with NW Carnival, Derry. I was Bulk Cutter and Pattern Grader for the Return of Columbcille in 2013. I find it difficult to get motivated sometimes to do Drawing and Painting…but get quite a few portrait commisions…and I have prints that have sold into their 40s. Did 2yrs of a college course after redundancy in 2007 at University of Ulster, Limavady.
My Shoes 1970
My shoes …for homework on a night class at Derry Tech….age 18
Gills Kitchen 1970
Homework from Night Class in Derry Tech …Mrs Hughes class
George and Kathleens Flat 1972
Pencil and Charcoal sketch while baby sitting with girlfriend
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Veronica Buchanan
instagram.com/veronica.buchanan/
Resting Place of Innocents
Ceramics
Waiting
Oil
Nostalgia
Oil
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Róisín O’Sullivan
I am a visual artist based in Cork. My process-based practice explores mark-making, experimentation and surface through painting, wood-burning and wood-carving techniques. The work stems from my own experience of nature but slips into abstraction through intuition and mark-making within the studio process. In February 2020, I opened my fifth solo exhibition titled This Place at The Jennings Gallery, University College Cork. In August 2020, I will participate in a two-week residency at Ballinglen Arts Foundation, awarded by the Cork County Council. In early 2020, I participated in residencies at PADA Art Residency (Portugal), Cill Rialaig Artists’ Retreat (Kerry), and at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre (Monaghan), an awarded bursary by the Cork County Council. In 2019, I completed a one-month residency at Kilnagleary Artist Studios (Cork), supported by the Cork County Council. I have exhibited in group exhibitions throughout Ireland and the U.K and have more recently participated in online exhibitions organised in Portugal and the United States. In 2015, I achieved my Masters in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, and was the sole recipient of my year to be awarded a six-month printmaking residency at Croydon School of Art (U.K), where I also exhibited a solo exhibition at the Parfitt Gallery.
This Place
This piece was influence by land and topography. The found cherrywood was burnt before the surface was carved by using a Dremel as a drawing tool. This body of work stems from my own experience of nature but slips into abstraction through intuition and mark-making within the studio process. Looking to the landscape as a source of inspiration, the influence of line, topography and repetition are evident within the paintings, woodcarvings and found bark. They are minimalist, complex and poetic pieces that slow the viewer down, to consider the complexity and fragility of nature as an abstracted subject. In recent months, I have been thinking about the point where the sky meets the land and this focus point has begun to greatly influenced my work. I have also introduced into my practice Yakisugi/ Shou Sugi Ban, a traditional Japanese method of wood burning that preserves the material. Along with woodblock carving techniques, the influence of Japanese and Asian art is ever present in my work.
Winter Hill & Curl (installation)
&
When Night Stirred at Sea (installation)
Examining repetitive lines within nature, this work highlights the relationship between mark-making on a painted surface and the twisted bark of the tree. This body of work stems from my own experience of nature but slips into abstraction through intuition and mark-making within the studio process.
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Alan Patterson
I am a mature arts’ student based in Eglinton and have recently completed a HND in fine art at .NWRC. I have previously exhibited at Stendhal and had some solo exhibitions. The most recent was at the Garden of Reflection gallery in Derry.
Dernish
Oil on canvas
Five Finger Strand
Acrylic on canvas board
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Roisin Doherty
instagram.com/roisindohertyartist/
I am an artist from a rural area on the coast of Donegal called Cruit Island. Growing up I learned to have a great respect And appreciation for the natural world and have always been fascinated by wildlife. However, this also meant I witnessed first hand the negative impact that human activity can have on delicate ecosystems. I recently graduated from a 4 year honours degree in contemporary art. My practice mainly involves pen ink and paper, creating intricate large scale drawings. I also use photography on a daily basis. I focus on themes such as wildlife population decline, cause and protection. I study the form, habitat, behaviour and characteristics of birds, the Irish hare and many other native animals. This is a subject and passion that I carry with me for my entire life.
O’ Curlew Cry No More
“O’ curlew cry no more, or only to the waters in the West”-William Butler Yeats Growing on a small island called Cruit on the north-west coast of Donegal my respect and appreciation for nature is something I gained from a young age. Unfortunately I also witnessed first hand the negative effects of human impact and climate change has had on our native wildlife and natural environment. This has been an ongoing study in my work for years now. The call of the curlew is a familiar one throughout my childhood, however it is one that is not heard often now. The sound would echo throughout the island. I used to watch these magnificent birds for hours which has aided my artwork of them now. I believe like many others that it is so important to protect the curlew. Likewise, the habitat the curlew thrives in is just as vital. There has been major habitat loss and degradation causing a huge decline in population. ‘Place’ is vital for these birds to survive.
Caroline Kuyper
At the Edge
5 ” x 7 ”inches, acrylics on board
Donegal Hills
5 ” x 7 ”inches, acrylics on board
Not for sale
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Catherine Ellis
I am interested in the legacy and language of objects and materials. They possess a power to create an emotional response and in this contributes to and shapes our experience of the world. I work across media in order to find the most successful expression of the concept.
Her Coat
Photograph
Her Teeth
Photograph
Her Light
Photograph
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Anne Loveday
I have lived in Donegal since 2015, having previously lived in London, Cambridge, Stoke on Trent and Shrewsbury in England. I have studied Fine Art and Textiles and like working in a variety of media.
Ghosts – Spode
Before moving to Iskaheen in 2015, one of the places I lived was Stoke on Trent, England. I made the video during a visit to the Ceramics Bicentennial which took place in the former Spode factory in the city. Alongside the signs of the decay of the building, I was struck by the vestiges of the workers and processes which had left their mark: a broken chair; spatters of clay slip on the wall etc. Although the factory had been closed for many years, there was still a human presence.
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Sue Morris
Sue Morris was born in England. Since the early nineties she has lived in Ireland, most recently in Derry, Northern Ireland. Her multidisciplinary practice utilizes drawing, text, printmaking, film, photography, sound and installation. Her work explores notions of the known and the unknown particularly around re-imagined and alternative histories. Selected exhibitions include those at; the Lockhart Gallery, State University New York, USA (2012); the Kunstverein Galerie, Baden bei Wien (2012) and museumORTH, Orth an der Danau, Austria (2013), as part of the International Cultural Programme for Ireland’s Presidency of the EU; Tartu Loomemajanduskeskus, Estonia (2014); Artisterium 7, Tbilisi, Georgia (2014); the State Institute of Culture, Moscow, Russia (2016); the Cultural Centre of Moschato, Athens, Greece (2017); the 16:9 Gallery, Lawrence University, Michigan, USA (2018) and Photophobia Festival of Contemporary Moving Image, the Hamilton Gallery and Artists Inc, Ontario, Canada (2019). Morris has had recent residencies at AIR Krems, Austria (2012); Trükimuuseum, Tartu, Estonia (2013); the Heinrich Böll Residency, Achill Island (2015), and the Art Arcadia residency in St Augustine’s, Derry (2018) and La Mola, Italy (2019). She has received funding awards from the Arts Council of N. Ireland, Culture Ireland and Dublin City Council.
The Nature of Time
HD video with sound, 5 mins. The work explores the slippery nature of time.