Snakes and Ladders Print

Originally from Dalkey, Co Dublin, contemporary visual artist Oonagh Latchford lives and works in a small rural village not far from Wexford town. Oonagh's painting practice examines the effects of high contrasts and over saturation produced by strong sunlight and artificial lighting at night. She plays with how strong light distorts both shape and colour. Photography plays a vital role in her process which is informed in particular, by a fascination with bokeh photography. She is interested in blurred areas within her source images and explores how economy of detail creates new narratives. Figurative elements constitute a large portion of her work and see her continue in an area that has been a constant within her practice. She plays with the idiosyncrasy of the candid photograph, so it is not unusual to see a figure running off her painting surface. New work sees the oonagh isolating and transporting solitary figures or small groups from larger gatherings. Already somewhat distorted, she places them into an abstracted and simplified landscape. Oonagh graduated from Wexford Campus School of Art & Design with a BA (hons) Art in 2010. Her paintings are held in the collections of Wexford VEC, IT Carlow, Kelly’s Resort Hotel, AHEAD Ireland, The Ashdown Park Hotel - and in many other private and corporate collections, both within Ireland and the USA. She works with the Wexford Arts Centre as a facilitator of both adult and children's workshops, within their Visual Arts Education programme. She is on the current panel of artists for the the Arts Department of Wexford County Council’s Artist in the Community Scheme. She has facilitated workshops for the National Gallery of Ireland’s education and outreach programme and she is certified by Golden artist Colors, New York as a Golden Artist Educator. Oonagh was the recipient of County Wexford County Council's Tyrone Guthrie Award 2014. She was awarded a primary school residency as part of the Living Arts Project for both 2014/2015 and 2016/2017