Painting has always been my passion, and I love bringing flowers into the studio to paint and sketching the landscape out of doors when the weather is calm. Painting plein air feels like I am plugging myself into source. If it’s too cold to sit for long, I do walking sketches which involves stopping for just 3 or 4 minutes and quickly scribbling down a detail of a tree or a skyline or distant horizon. In warm weather, when I can spend longer outside painting, I feel like I can absorb the whole essence of the scene. It stays stored inside me for future reference in the studio. Painting in nature gives me the feeling that I can simply disappear into the natural world around me. I become the scene, and the scene becomes the painting.
Misty Morning, Marlay Lake. Plein Air Sketch Book. Marlay Park where my studio is located in Dublin, Ireland
I greatly admire the work of the impressionists because they play with the light and have a way of injecting the energy of a place into a scene. Van Gogh in particular, with his sunflowers, inspired me to look closely at these giant symbols of life-giving forces and really try to express them energetically. I used them as symbols for to represent milestones in my life which became an autobiographical journey representing the dark times of growth as well as the shining moments of glory.
“Love, Vincent.” Watercolour and Collage 2011. Collage pieces made from Van Gogh’s painting Starry Night and his letters to his brother Theo where he described what he was painting.
It was while I was starting a family and interested in the cycles of life that I focused on the sunflower as a theme which I would return to often as a metaphor for the soul’s journey through the world.
I started with painting the seed and super imposed female forms curled up inside them, representing the life we have inside that is yet to be born. At the time, I didn’t know why I was so drawn to this embryonic stage, but now entering my sixties I realise what my psyche was trying to tell me.
In Search of Soul. 2. Gone To Earth. 3. Emergence
I followed the journey of the sunflower through its cycles from seed and sprout (not pictured here) to full blossomed flower and beyond. And in a parallel journey, took the tools of my trade, pencil and paint, through traditional forms of art through to contemporary techniques to show the ‘breaking through’ of the life within the form to show the idea that there is more life beyond mere existence if we can engage with nature to reach our highest potential.
Dying Sunflower 2. Glorious Sunflower 3. Fading Glory
After the botanical study in pencil and the traditional watercolours, I loosened up and entered the spirit of the sunflower showing the torn and ragged sunflowers that go through the storms of life which mirrored my own. Even though I loved doing the traditional versions, all the while I was painting them, I could feel a tug at my heart to go wild and be a little braver and bolder with the techniques. It was as if there was a determination to break the rules and ‘do it my way’!
Sunflowers, Wild and Free. Collection of Water Colour Society of Ireland in University of Limerick
In 2000 my family and I moved to India, and I painted the cycle again, ending with the sunflower blooming to her most fabulous ‘Self’ in the prime of her life, adorned with colours, gold, and lace textures. Which can be seen in “Sun Goddess” at the end of this post.
Eclipse 2. Sunflowers in a Storm 3. Last Tears
In the paintings of the broken sunflowers, the torn petals went their own way to become stories in other peoples lives….
Journeys - Watercolour Diptych. 2002 (India)
And during developing these semi-abstract pieces, I lost myself to the earthy tones again and wrapped myself in the cocoon of its centre, coming full circle to where I started with the seed, to create a new starting point, a new journey, in search of the heartbeat of my soul.
Eternal Cycles, Diptych, Watercolour, Gouache, Gold Ink. 2002.
Eternal Cycles became the title for my tarot and oracle cards which are still a work in progress. You can follow this on my other website www.eternalcycles.com and on my YouTube channel
My art channel is mainly about my painting plein air near my studio in Marlay and I will be adding new footage of my new studio in Connemara where I hope to show my adventures on the Wild Atlantic Way.
I have a new video coming soon which shows the painting and collaging, step by step of the sunflower painting, “Sun Goddess”. It will be available to purchase from my website soon. Please follow me on my social media platform Instagram to keep updated.
As always, thank you for reading!
Sun Goddess, Watercolour and Collage (with gold ink)