Artwork by Lorraine Whelan . . .
Signal Arts Centre Residency 2018
For ten weeks, Oct-Dec, I was resident in the two-sinked studio, where I had the agenda to be productive! I finished a series of paintings on canvas based on time I spent in the south of France, over a number of years. I did a self-portrait in my sketchbook each morning when I arrived at the studio, and also did a daily large chalk pastel drawing. During the residency, I also did some on-street utility cover rubbings and a variety of other drawings and small paintings in a variety of media. Towards the end of the residency I began a series of drawings to be turned into lino prints at a later date.
Image Details
- Aloe, 2018, acrylic on canvas with hessian, 35 cm x 28 cm
- Persimmons, 2018, chalk pastel on card, 30.5 cm x 50.5 cm
- (untitled sef-portrait), 2018, ink on paper, A5 sketchbook page
- Palm Leaves Brushing the Pavement, 2018, pencil on paper, 25 cm x 15 cm
Artist Statement / Bio
I was born in Toronto, Canada into a large Irish immigrant family. Shortly after obtaining my primary degree in 1986, I moved to Ireland to where my parents and half my siblings had already returned.
My writing (poetry, art criticism & commentary, fiction, non-fiction) has been published in Ireland, Canada, USA, Luxembourg & online.
I have exhibited my artwork throughout Ireland in both solo and group exhibitions and have exhibited in group exhibitions in France, China and Canada. I have participated in artist residencies and symposia and my work is included in private (US, Canada, Australia, UK & Belgium) and in public/corporate collections (Microsoft WPGI, OPW, HSE, Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Europol & IBM).
For over 30 years I have created bodies of work that are inspired and challenged by my environment and circumstances, which are regularly in flux. The study and analysis of dreams plays a large part in much of my work and the development of dream imagery informs the iconography used in both visual and verbal work.
I have worked on projects in response to a specific brief, site, concept, or combination of these. I am fascinated with the immediacy of temporary work yet equally interested in archives and permanence. While I consider myself primarily a painter, I love to experience and experiment with any manner of media. I freely use any media to suit an idea, which is the paramount consideration.
I believe that it is through the expression of individual responses to life circumstances that wider truths can be discovered and understood.
I am an artist. I am here. I remember. I draw. I write. I tell stories.