Carol Ann McDermott
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I graduated with a BA (Hons) in July 2011. My work is a mix of images including cropped close up flower sections and images taken from bouquets of flowers, painted oil on canvas.
The objective of my work is to produce beautiful realistic paintings and drawings that look at flowers as abstract shapes.
My paintings are about shapes and the details within them. I photograph bouquets of flowers as a starting point for the paintings. The photographs collect the information that I then interpret into the paintings and drawings. I also look for images in which I can paint the illusion of depth that is not in the original photograph. I want to achieve the push and pull effect in the painting by the layering of the subject matter to aid the illusion of space. I look for the small abstract areas of background over which I can paint the realist and detailed shapes made by the flowers and leaves.
I want the paintings to draw the viewer in, for them to see something that is not the expected representation but an abstraction of shapes taken from a bouquet of flowers painted in a hyper realistic way to create a new reality. I want the viewer to be aware of the depth within the paintings and reflect on what is happening in the abstract background areas. I do not see myself as a flower painter, but as an interpreter of form and space creating a new perception and spatial orientation from the original bouquet, thus creating a new reality that is not seen in the original photographs.
“Form, colour and the space are at the whim of reality, their discovery and organization is the assignment of the realist painter. (Ralph Goings 1978)”
The objective of my work is to produce beautiful realistic paintings and drawings that look at flowers as abstract shapes.
My paintings are about shapes and the details within them. I photograph bouquets of flowers as a starting point for the paintings. The photographs collect the information that I then interpret into the paintings and drawings. I also look for images in which I can paint the illusion of depth that is not in the original photograph. I want to achieve the push and pull effect in the painting by the layering of the subject matter to aid the illusion of space. I look for the small abstract areas of background over which I can paint the realist and detailed shapes made by the flowers and leaves.
I want the paintings to draw the viewer in, for them to see something that is not the expected representation but an abstraction of shapes taken from a bouquet of flowers painted in a hyper realistic way to create a new reality. I want the viewer to be aware of the depth within the paintings and reflect on what is happening in the abstract background areas. I do not see myself as a flower painter, but as an interpreter of form and space creating a new perception and spatial orientation from the original bouquet, thus creating a new reality that is not seen in the original photographs.
“Form, colour and the space are at the whim of reality, their discovery and organization is the assignment of the realist painter. (Ralph Goings 1978)”