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The Climb Duptych 160cm x 320cm oil on canvas

2024 - 2022

During 2022 I relocated with my family to Schull in West Cork. The beautiful Mizen peninsula, the evocative coastline and mountains have become a current focus and vehicle to explore different responses evoked by the surrounding environment. In these new landscape paintingsI am seeking to integrate memories of past mountains with those I am currently exploring as well as experiences of more infinite, boundary-less spaces. Paintings from 2023 reflect an ongoing interest in the historical past embedded in the landscape.  

2021

 These paintings document personal encounters with ancient Irish stone tools, medieval sculptures, bas reliefs and tomb effigies from ancient Irish abbeys. My relocation from South Africa to Ireland in 2016 necessitated the  building of new visceral and sensory connections and a more expansive sense of temporality. Resonating with stones has been the unexpected key to this process. During lockdown we visited Kilcooley Abbey in County Tipperary. It is a wonderful medieval monastic site with disarmingly beautiful carvings, including those of a mermaid, a dolphin and a burial sculpture of a knight with his dog at his feet. Self- and family portraits  found their way into the images and the Knight painting was shortlisted for the Zurich Portrait Prize.  In October my interest in medieval sculpture was facilitated through a residency at The Burren College of Art, County Clare and visits to surrounding medieval sites. Lastly, an ongoing series of mix media works exploring  visceral responses to the ancient finely-shaped stone tools unearthed in our garden.

2020

The paintings below were largely concerned with the theme of moving from one place to another, in my case from South Africa to Ireland. Serendipitous that I was invited to take part in an exhibition themed Diaspora.

                         COMINGS AND GOINGS

In  Comings and Goings,  the themes of movement and transitoriness are explored through the image of the table where a still life is in disorder. The theme explores  possibilities for different kinds of celebrations. These paintings are also about light and colour, quirkiness and liveliness. Birds make  unexpected appearances.