I use poetry, music, and life experiences as emotional tools to express and connect with ideas. I keep a pocket sketch book at all times for observational drawing, a memory archive. These can act as springboards for larger scale pieces or projects. The tributary where the stream meets the river, echoes our life cycles, and I use the powerful riverside landscape where I live to gather thoughts that inform my practice.
As I grow in age, I have been thinking on a deeper level about our mortality. Having a strong connection with art, poetry and music can transcend this wheel of living and dying creating possibilities of continued life cycles and a deeper connection with the living and the dead. These life events are relevant to us all, and my work is very much about audience engagement and inclusivity.
I am particularly interested in the legacies we are handed down, and consider our humanity or sometimes lack of it a fascinating subject. The human figure and the space it occupies is my main focus. Themes on childhood, ageing and fragility are created through a deep relationship with my materials and other artists.
I paint and draw on a large scale. Some of my pastel and charcoal drawings can be as significant and ambitious as my paintings. Monotype printing has taught me to trust the marks I put down and how to use my materials with intention. Quality pigments, paper and canvas play an important role throughout my aesthetic considerations. Materials forge the emotions held within my work. I do not compromise on the impact less thought out materials have on our environment, hand blending my own oil paint using earth pigments as part of my painting ritual. Colour relationships are imperative to my outcomes.
I was born in London, in a then poor Kings Cross sixty years ago to Irish parents. I will be returning after 28 years in Devon. We are evolving creatures, it is in this repositioning and inner development that our most interesting creative work lies. Art does change lives, it has changed mine. We all share a part in our ancestral artistic lineage.
I have proudly been selected to represent Arts University Plymouth in the Freelands Painting Prize. I am waiting for the outcome of the final selections. I look forward to sharing this with you on this website, alongside my new paintings, and my progress in the studio through my Instagram. Please message me with any thoughts or queries about my work. I would love to hear from you.
Siobhán.
Education
2022-25
BA (Hons) Painting, Drawing and Printmaking. Plymouth Arts University.
2014
CBS Creative Painting. Plymouth College of Art and Design.
2004
Access to Higher Education, Art and Design. Plymouth College of Art and Design.
2003
NCFE Creative Craft, Life Drawing. Plymouth College of Art and Design.
2002
NCFE Drawing and Painting. Plymouth College of Art and Design.
I have also participated in local and council-led artistic programmes, taking part in “Off The Peg” and “Open Studios” in Dartington Devon, alongside short programmes such as etching with the printmaker Mary Gillett and paper collage with artist Mark Hearld.
Exhibitions
Artmill Gallery, Plymouth, 2024.
St Saviours Hall, Plymouth, 2024.
PS1 Gallery, Plymouth, 2023.
Rabbit Rabbit, Tavistock, 2018-2020.