Looking, attentively
I am a visual artist immersed in the Irish landscape: its hedgerows, its weather, and its slow turning of light. My daily practice begins not with an idea but with looking, a deliberate and peaceful attention to what is alive around me.
I draw from the earth I walk on, from shared spaces between garden and wild verge, holding each moment of stillness as the ground for everything that follows.
Approach & the living subject
My work rests on blind drawing. My eyes remain completely anchored to the living subject while my hand moves blind across the page, seeking an energetic, breathing presence rather than static accuracy. I am reaching for livingness, not likeness.
I gather rocks, clay, and flora from my garden and local ground, then crush, boil, and hand-grind them with patient labour. Avocado, beetroot, old soap, kitchen compost: each transformed through this slow, deliberate craft into stable inks, chalks, and pastels. Raw earth and forage become the tools I layer.
The media itself is alive and mutable. Some pigments shift and fade with the light over time, capturing the transience of nature itself. This is how I map nuanced humanity: not as fixed images, but as breathing presences held in shared space.
Demonstrations
Sustainable art materials form the heart of these demonstrations: paints, pastels and inks from natural and recycled materials like old make-up and kitchen waste. Open to adult groups, who are often quietly fascinated by the slow transformation of humble materials into usable colour.
A natural extension of the making you see above, demonstrations have been shared with the Backwater Artists Network, the Alzheimer's Society, and as part of my exhibition Threads and Lines in Belmullet, Co. Mayo.
An Invitation for Portraiture Commissions
I welcome enquiries about custom portraiture, not as a transaction but as an intimate exchange of attention. My portraits rest on long looking: paying deep attention to the individual, and through drawing and painting hoping to convey the particular intensity, energy, and aliveness of the person.
Each is built through blind drawing and garden-sourced colour, layer by layer, until something nuanced and true emerges on the page. I work slowly, in peaceful shared space, honouring the humanity of every sitter.
If you would like to make an enquiry about a portrait, I would be glad to hear from you.
Make an enquiry
About
I work in County Cork but exhibit all over Ireland when the opportunity arises. I am part of the Backwater Artists Network and a member of Visual Artists Ireland.
Selected exhibitions include:
- GOMA Waterford 8th Annual Winter Exhibition, 2025
- Annual Members Exhibition, Lavit Gallery, 2025
- By nature/Ó nádúr, MTU Cork School of Music, 2024
- Threads and Lines (with Frances Crowe), Áras Inis Gluaire, Belmullet, Co. Mayo, 2024
- Backwater Artists Network Group Show, Fota House, Co. Cork, 2022
- We are one, Blackwater Valley Makers, Fermoy, Co. Cork, 2020
- A Moment Before Lockdown, Backwater Artists Network, 2020
- Memory is grey, solo exhibition, Cork, 2019
- Solo exhibition, Cork County Library, 2019
- Annual Group Exhibition, Lavit Gallery, Cork, 2019
- Solo exhibition, Quay Co-op, Cork, 2019
- Solo exhibition, Friars Gate Theatre, Kilmallock, Co. Limerick, 2018
- Group show with Brigid Delahunty and Fionnuala Kelly, Hazelhurst, Monkstown, Co. Cork, 2014
- Royal Ulster Academy Annual Exhibition, Belfast, 2010
- Winter Show, Lavit Gallery, Cork, 2010
- Christmas Show, Lavit Gallery, Cork, 2009
- Fledglings, Lavit Gallery, Cork, 2008
- Soup, degree show, Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork, 2008
- ACDC, degree show, ESB Substation, Cork, 2007
Education
- 2009 Post Grad Dip Education, MTU, Crawford College of Art
- 2008 BA Fine Art, Crawford College of Art
- 1987 CQSW, Edinburgh University
- 1981 B.Soc.Sc., UCC
