Róisín O'Farrell was born in 1968 and was brought up in an artistically talented family.
Her introduction to art began from an early age, allowing her to mature a strong appreciation for both classical and contemporary art.
It was in early 2009, that Roisin's work was first discovered. Since her official introduction to the artworld, she has achieved great success, exhibiting in a number of established galleries throughout Ireland & England. Roisin's success continued to gain momentum with sellout events in London, Bristol and Newcastle. Further events have already been planned for Dublin, London, Edinburgh and New York.
The theme of this exhibition portrays a quiet place, where life and characters are also being represented. Although there is variation in each painting of the series, the scenes are all interior, where the main character is depicted by an empty chair.
A moment in time, a quietness, that is detached from the typical busy day, is clearly relevant in each piece. That moment of undisturbed tranquility before dawn break or of the silence left behind when a party has retired to another room.
In the absence of the characters, now a distant vision, the chairs in the painting appear to come to life, and want to become characters in their own story.
Aside from the subject matter of the paintings, how Roisin paints them is as important to her as the image that is being portrayed. Certainly light, colour and texture are critical elements of Roisin's work. She consciously strides to keep her approach loose and fresh, working quickly in a wet on wet technique and often embracing happy accidents. Using lots of juicy paint and alternating between palette knife and brush, allowing her to be suggestive rather than descriptive.
“Painting is my hideaway, my secret garden, my quiet place. Not in the sense of stillness and inactivity because there is life and excitement and ideas, but in that the ideas seem to bypass the part of my brain that might analyze them to death. “Róisín O’Farrell