Nature Inspired Abstract Art Work

“It looks like the beginning of the world, somehow: the sea looks older than in other places, the hills and rocks strange, and formed differently from other rocks and hills…The hill-tops are shattered into a thousand cragged fantastical shapes. The savage rock-sides are painted of a hundred colours. Does the sun ever shine here? When the world was moulded and fashioned out of formless chaos, this must have been the bit over—a remnant of chaos!”
William Thackeray
The Irish Sketchbook of 1842

One of my favourite things is to watch the seaweed in the tide; creating its own dance. The rich colours swaying back and forth, dancing in the sea foam. The pale winter sun peeking through the clouds, and the mountain mist sweeping down to the black, icy sea. This was the inspiration for my most recent paintings.

The Irish coastline is full of paradox. The tranquil calmness of the glistening, turquoise ocean, such as Malin Beg or Portsalon, begging you to sink into the cool blue ocean, contrasted with the frenetic, almost violent pounding of waves at Malin Head or Ballintoy. At the same time calming but energetic, tranquil yet noisy. It truly is ‘Untamed’. There is nothing we can do to contain its power. It is savage, powerful, awesome, ferocious and free in its’ wild and natural state. Read on to discover the story of my nature inspired abstract art.

The Process

Each piece takes a few weeks from conception to finish. I work intuitively and in layers, which means that I need a lot of drying time between. This gives me time to really study the painting in depth and learn what it needs from me and where I need to take it.

With rolling green hills overlooking moody dark rocks, interspersed with golden sands and turquoise blue coves, not to mention vibrant pink and orange sunsets, the coast plays to my love of brave textures and bold colours. Like most of my paintings, the mood is abstract expressionist.

My paintings are a combination of emotive, colour filled landscaped based on the local coastal landscapes of County Down in Ireland. These are painted in a flow state, with no specific landmark in mind, but an emphasis on the push and pull between light and dark. The graphic, dynamic abstract paintings are a culmination of the raw emotion of the icy sea spray on a winter’s day, the frost on the hills overlooking the gloomy bay, the kelp forests dancing in the incoming grey tide. The foundation of the paintings is a muted colour palette, inspired by winter days, but the pop of colour signifying the arrival of spring – the tranquility and darkness juxtaposed with the vibrance of a new energy.