Your own way Painting

Marie Connery was born in Scotland in 1966 to an Irish mother and Scottish father with 3 brothers and 3 sisters. The family moved too Co. Donegal in Ireland in the late 70's. Moved to London in 1984 to look for work and explore new opportunities after being disappointed in not being able to attend art college. Marie went into a career in banking until the birth of her second son. In 1997 whilst pregnant with her first son, she decide to enrol in the local art college in Sutton, Surrey for weekly drawing and painting classes. Achieved an A level in art at the end of the course and went on to do a foundation in art at the the University of the creative arts in Epsom and then a degree in fine art painting at Wimbledon college of Art. Since grauduating Marie has focused on her teaching career, alongside doing some commissions. Having a young family, Marie's work has explored ideas about the home and where she was brought up. Marie's work explores intimate spaces, our thoughts and memories; the unspoken word, our dreams and remnants of what's left behind.  Influenced by the book "poetics of space" by Gaston Bachelard. Our home and place of birth etches in our memories. It has a sense of belonging and wanting to fit in. Something we all want, which can be quite difficult depending where you live or where you have come from. She uses architectural spaces and objects as a metaphor for comfort and security to which can quickly move from security and anxiety to pleasure and pain.  Marie often start with a collage of images and drawings focusing on the negative space. She experiments with materials and likes to find new ways to make prints or print on canvas or board. Recently, uses water colours on a silkscreen creating more painterly prints, adding acrylic pen with luminous colours. Colour can make you instantly connected to a place. I want to create an illusion, an imaginative space. Recently, she have been working with stencils and a geli plate on paper and canvas. The images are ghostly and this techniques enables me to build layers of shapes and colours with texture. Matisse's use of colour and simplicity of shapes has inspired Marie's work. John Piper's use of architectural spaces in his prints and paintings express mystery and bring memories to mind of churches and ruins growing up. Marie very much drawn to his use of layering and light within the works. Now that her boys have grown up, she is able to dedicate more time to her practice.