Cath O’Leary
11-25 October 2014
Brisons Veor sits in a wild place on the edge of things. Most days that I was there winds varied between 20 and 50 mph, catching the tail end of hurricane Gonzales one night, leaving a day of flying foam and bubbling sea.
I kept my options open before arriving, knowing that I am influenced unpredictably by place and time so bringing a carload of paper, card, canvass, clay, paint and ink. My one statement to everyone was that I would not be painting the sea. Maybe the rockpools…
Living next to the sea for two weeks with its sound, the tides, changing colours and moods – going to sleep and waking up hearing it, walking on cliff paths and sitting on rocks, my work became all about it. I tried to make it from paper clay, a new material for me that taught me to slow down and be patient. I painted the colours, the way it made me feel and set up a table in front of the upstairs door the day after the storm and drew in ink with sticks and seedheads. I wrote, then stamped words into clay, painted with slip, drew with found charcoal in my sketchbook. The work that I produced stands both as initial studies and/or work done in the moment.
Brisons Veor is the place where I have felt most creative, most alive and most completely comfortable in my own skin. My pace of life was different. I am an impulsive artist who is now learning to play the long game.
More images will be slowly added to https://catholeary.wordpress.com/ in the new year.
a shoal of seagulls silently cruises the evening sky (unfired)
brisons view
day after gonzales
sea clay (unfired)
text pots (unfired)