Catherine McKenna

My name is Catherine McKenna, I am an artist, based in Dublin and Wicklow. I have completed a level five FETAC course, Art, Craft, and Design with distinction, and I have recently completed a two-year BTEC fine art course, at Bray Institute of Further Education, county Wicklow. Moving forward I am hoping to attend a third-level fine arts degree program for further self-development.

I am inspired by Francis Bacon, and his look at life and death, Edvard Munch, and his attempt to rationalize and explain his experiences through what he knew best, painting, Harry Clarke’s wondrous sketches, and stained-glass windows of exquisite beauty and vibrant colours.

I mostly work in paint and incorporate photography into my practice. My artwork is based on an attempt to rationalize and explain my experiences of life through paint; I look at expressionism, realism, surrealism, and abstraction, this is depending on what project I am working on at the time. I paint from memory and photographs; I allow my feelings, and emotions through my memories, and images to fill my canvasses. My work is based on moods, emotions, life, and death.

I also work in ceramics and enjoy this medium and its processes. In my ceramic pieces, I look to Nature, the lifecycle of the seed pod, and the fragility of our overburdened Ecosystem through deforestation, and overuse of plastics, chemicals, and pollution.