Pearse Gilmore

My work has always been shaped by a few key influences: Hermann Hesse, James Joyce, Goya, Velázquez, and Gabriel García Márquez. Each represents a confrontation with the unknown — Hesse’s exploration of the psyche, Joyce’s complex, fragmented reality, Goya’s disturbing visions, and Márquez’s magical realism, where time and space are fluid and dreams and reality coexist. These figures have taught me that art isn’t about finding definitive answers. It’s about embracing ambiguity, creating worlds that exist beyond our immediate understanding.

I see my paintings as a form of alchemy — a constant negotiation with chance and chaos. I don’t aim to capture reality. Instead, I work with it, allowing the paint to lead me, guided by accident and instinct. The process is messy, unpredictable, often reckless. I layer thick oils, letting the texture dictate the form, then trace the shapes with ink lines that follow their own logic, creating a tension between the organic and the controlled. My canvases aren’t about perfection. They’re about energy, fluidity, and the sense of something emerging from disorder.

Having lived in cities like Barcelona, London,Dublin, Los Angeles, and now the quiet of rural France, I’ve always been influenced by the s...