Living and working in Wexford, my work sits in constant dialogue with my surroundings -nature, memory, and the quiet rhythms of daily life and people. Even the small, almost incidental encounters become part of that ecosystem, grounding the work in something lived rather than constructed.
My work is rooted in childhood, both as memory and as a way of understanding the world. I’m interested in the vulnerability of children and the quiet resilience they carry, and how those early experiences shape us as adults. My paintings act as portals -small, precise triggers that unlock entire sensory worlds. A gesture, a posture, a fragment of clothing can collapse time, bringing the viewer back into their own past.
I make paintings and sculptures that often centre on young figures placed in sparse, open spaces. That space isn’t absence -it’s invitation. It allows the viewer to enter, to project, to complete the image. The same restraint carries through into my mark-making. Faces are suggested rather than fully rendered, implied rather than fixed. The result is a kind of visual openness -where meaning isn’t delivered but discovered.
The compositions are deliberately pared back, with areas of empty ground that hold asense of stillness and unease. The children I depict are not fixed in narrative. They act as emotional anchors, holding conflicting feelings of fragility and strength. The figures don’t simply present themselves -they confront. What begins as unease often turns into recognition,in that exchange, the work expands. It becomes layered with interpretations I never consciously placed there. The work sits between the real and the imagined, where memory and feeling overlap.
There is no rigid plan, no fixed outcome. Across painting and sculpture, I’m interested in capturing moments of emotional recognition. The process is responsive and intuitive, enabling the work to evolve naturally. Sometimes I draw from still images or fragments that trigger a particular emotional response, using these as a starting point rather than something to replicate.I want the viewer to feel something of that early instinct, the part of ourselves that understands before it explains, and to reconnect with the strength that sits within vulnerability.
I want the work to be more expansive that it becomes a shared emotional field -one where the viewer’s experiences sit alongside the artists.
Publications
| 2024 | Art Journal, Volume 82, 2023 – Issue 4, Taylor & Francis. U.S. |
Solo Shows
Group Shows
Invited Artist
| 2019 | Youyi, Hangzhou, Shanghai, China |
| 2019 | Crawford Gallery – Seen not Heard Exhibition – invited artist |
| 2018 | Siddhartha Gallery, Kathmandu, Nepal |
| 2018 | KAMERA8 Painting is Dead Group show – Curated by Anya von Gosseln |
| 2018 | KAMERA8 Christmas Group show – Curated by Anya von Gosseln |
| 2018 | Boyle Arts Festival Exhibition |
| 2018 | Arusha Gallery – Edinburgh |
| 2014 | Watts Up, Bernardaud Foundation, Limoges – France |
| 2016 | Newtownbarry House Exhibition |
| 2011 | Green Acres Gallery Wexford |
| 2007 | Bank of Ireland HQ. |
| 2005 | Brown Thomas Dublin, Commission Shoe Rooms launch |
| 2004 | Eígse Arts Festival Carlow. |
| 2003 | Newtownbarry House Bunclody, Wexford |
Accolades
| 2021 | Invited as a full member of Society Women Artists |
| 2021 | Shortlisted for the John Richardson French residency award |
| 2020 | Invited as Associate member Society Women Artists London |
| 2019 | Society Women Artists, London, Rosemary & Co Award |
| 2018 | Royal Ulster Academy, Irish News award, depicting Ireland today |
| 2015 | Royal Ulster Academy, Silver Perpetual award for best work by a non-academician |