Alchemical Bouquet Painting

Aine is an experimental painter, based in the UK. She uses a variety of media - often within a single piece of work - including collage, ink, watercolour, spray paint and acrylic. She delights in using an abundance of intense, saturated hues. She is interested in the symbolic and expressive power of colour. Bold combinations create a sense of liveliness and humour. While her subject matter is often morbid, strange and unsettling, her intention with these pieces is always to conjure joy, surprise and hope through her use of colour. Her artwork is predominately figurative, fantastical and exuberant. Blending recognisable elements in unexpected, incongruous ways. She has a magpie eye collecting visual delights, oddities and wonders from historical sources, ecclesiastical art, mythology, decorative pattern, folk art, science, nature and landscape. She reinterprets these visual sources to her help communicate human experience; devotion, sacrifice, faith, suffering and hope. By connecting with the mysterious and reinterpreting the past, her work escapes the reality of modern life. Woven throughout are universal themes such as memory, love, loss, legacy and mortality. Compositions are often surreal and dreamlike. The significant sentiment behind her creative process is ‘Baroque’; due to the lush, rich, dramatic, spectacular, emotional, exuberant, spiritual, exaggerated, and highly decorated elements. Some of her paintings are autobiographical, exploring family legacy, identity and a sense of place. She is heavily influenced by her Irish Catholic heritage/DNA, and by her county of residence, celebrating her status as a proud Essex girl. Early exposure to kitsch prints of protective saints, gory depictions of the crucifixion, statues of the Virgin Mary, pilgrimage souvenirs and prayer cards in her childhood home have left lasting impressions. She has BA Hons Fine Art Painting, from Brighton University (2002) and a PGCE to teach Art and Design. Her paintings have been exhibited in the South East, England. With commissions travelling to far flung locations such as Australia and Sweden.