Geraldine O'Riordan Artist

Murals & Interiors

Today I decided to publish an album of my murals and trompe l'oeil work. It is the last album on the sidebar if you scroll down. 

Lately I have been doing some modernist murals on my own house and also a few by commission. I think they really lend themselves to the modern interiors of today. It's nice to add colour and design as a feature to a room. It can act as a focal point or highlight an architectural feature. The challenge of designing for individual homes is stimulating and it also gives me an opportunity to reflect on my other artwork. I am currently putting together an album of some of these murals for publishing soon.

"Adare and Beyond"

Vault Gallery

Village Hall

Adare

Co. Limerick

22nd November  at 7.30pm

The opening speaker will be Countess Dunraven.

Runs until 6th December 2008

Having been derailed in earlier years by the mundane pressures of life, I now find myself with the luxury of being able to revisit my past.  With the exploration of my past, comes a recognition of the muses that have inspired my work.

Returning to Adare and West Limerick, I realise how this village, and its surrounding landscape, call to mind evocative and beautiful memories from my past.  Among those memories are grazing cattle, the heavy rich soil and the distant haze of the Golden Vale.  The distinctive architecture of Adare village instils a sense of appreciation for a time when life was of a much slower pace.  These memories of the past bring with them a sense of the tangible nature of place, and particularly the tactile relationship connecting the environment with its inhabitants.  Through my work, I endeavour to capture the essence of what that past calls to mind, so that the viewer may experience something  of that special place and time.

In attempting this endeavour, the focus of my work is on cameo images of the unique buildings of Adare and its environs in the Golden Vale.  These are portrayals of the area, as seen through its characteristic colours, together with the moods created by the interplay of light and shadow.

While painting I enter into a mode of recording positive and negative colour shapes, layering the nuances to build up texture and colour.  The experience is one of moving around the painting in a magical flow.  Each brushstroke is an emotional expression of my personal connection with the subject. The secret is to walk away from the painting at the right moment.

As expressed by Antoine de Sainte-Expury:

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

"The River Lee Project" All paintings sold.

(To view paintings click on the album on the side bar on the right).

Most recent exhibition was 15th May to 13th of June 2008. The opening was by Colm Murphy. 

At the Cork City & County Archive 

Seamus Murphy Building Great William O'Brien Street 

Blackpool 

Cork

The work emerged from my experience of Cork City as a lifeworld, and specifically, the changing nature of that lifeworld. The layered unfolding of its landscape, its interaction with the passing of time is one that inspires me. As a painter, I seek to capture the nuances constituting that changing landscape, and thereby bring to mind our past, and the journey that we take with the environment that is our home. As a native of Cork City, I bring a keen sense of the evolving cityscape to my work, and this is represented in my painting. The passing of time brings with it an organic development to the architectural shape and fabric of the city, one that is interwoven into the experience of daily life for its residents. My paintings bring this passage of time to the fore, as represented by the heightened play of light, colour and shadow, calling to mind the transient nature of our experience. 

The River Lee Project has enabled me to explore my vision of the meaning of the cityscape; to explore my understanding of it as a lifeworld. The river - symbolising an essential element of city life - interplays with my vision as a painter; it has become the backdrop against which my sense of the excitement and delight of the City are played out, enabling me to express something of what we are, and the role that our environment plays for us. The solid quay walls tell their own story. They are a stable, solid and unchanging factor. Above them things are happening... 

Through this project I would like to awaken an appreciation for our experience with the environment, evoking a sense of our past and a vision of our future. By choosing to represent experience through representational painting, I am calling on my background as a decorative artist. My prior work was the application of traditional painting methods to the home environment. During the years when I ran this business, my skills as a painter developed, along with the hope of fulfilling my lifelong desire to express my vision through painting. It is my hope that those of you who viewed "The River Lee Project" exhibition will concur.

Biography

I was born and have lived most of my life in Cork. Having initially pursued a career in business the desire to paint has always been there. As the result of doing a residency at the Burren College in 2005 I decided to pursue art as a career. Soon after I acquired a studio at the Backwater Artist Group at Wansford Quay which enabled me to study and sketch the old buildings of the city and the docklands. 

Residencies

2000    Burren College of Art

2005    Burren College of Art

2007    Cill Rialaig

Solo Exhibitions

2006    Gallery 44, Cork

2008    Cork City & County Archive

2008    "Adare and Beyond", Vault Gallery, Adare, Co. Limerick

Selected Group Exhibitions

2007 Cill Rialaig

2008 Lavit Gallery

Collections

McMahon Group, Limerick

Fitzgeralds Solicitors

Farmhouse Restaurant, Midleton

University College Cork

Ballymaloe House

Earl and Countess Dunraven

Various Private collections

Gallleries;

Lavit Gallery, Cork 

The Artman Gallery, Dingle, Co. Kerry 

The Vault Gallery, Adare, Co. Limerick 

Email; geraldineoriordan@yahoo.ie