About

Hi, welcome to my webpage

I am a landscape painter living in West Cork, which is situated on the very southern tip of Ireland.

Most of the places explored in my work come about as a result of my daily encounters, experiences and observations. I don’t set out to find specific places to paint, it’s more of a case of being in the right place at the right time, seeing beauty in the ordinary, often overlooked, wild and imperfect places.

‘Nature is and always has been there for me, even as a child growing up on a farm, my go to place was out into the fields with my dogs, so it really matters to me that there is love and truth in the work’.

A favourite place to paint down by the river, tucked away from the wind, just me and the birds, bliss.

I love nothing better than to head out with my notebook and camera to spend time walking and exploring what’s on my doorstep. In order to get to know my subject matter I visit and revisit a place many times and in all seasons. I used to sketch a lot out in the landscape but recently I find myself writing more and taking photographs as reference tools to impress the ever-changing moods of the landscape deeper into my memory, until the place and the emotion that it evokes become one, memory and reality fuse, and where colours and texture come from many instances rather than one specific encounter, revealing a seemingly known place in a new and fresh light.

A washed up pallet as a seat, a feather as a brush, some homemade gall ink, a bucket of seawater, a few tubes of acrylic and I was sorted.

For the last few years I have concentrated my work around painting the Ilen River which runs through my local town of Skibbereen and out to sea via Roaring Water Bay near my home. The river is a constant presence in my life, I drive by it many times a day, I walk along it’s banks and through being involved with Skibbereen Rowing Club I get to spend a lot of time on it as well so it’s no surprise that I felt compelled to paint it.

“The scene could have been overlooked. Not when Janet Murran’s eye spots it, sees it, recreates it.” What Lies Beneath, by Niall Mac Monagle, Sunday Independent, September 16th, 2018.

I am totally captivated and inspired by the narrative of the river from it’s stunning beauty and delicacy to it’s velocity and strength, mirror world’s that are revealed on crisp Winter’s day, the wild flowers that grow by it’s banks, the reflections of bare branches and telephone wires, the constant ebb and flow of the water as tides rise and fall revealing a half-hidden place, rocks covered in algae, leaves floating, branches protruding from the river bed, the detritus of life, the un-noticed of the everyday are all worthy subjects in my paintings. I would like for people who view my work to be left with a sense of wonder of the beauty that is all around us, while at the same time act as a gentle reminder of the delicate balance in which all nature is held and to want to respect and care for it

Plein air painting at Kilkilleen beach, Roaringwater Bay.

I start a painting by priming solid wood panels with several layers of gesso, this gives me a lovely coarse texture for the brushstrokes. I use acrylic paint and prefer to work with a limited pallet of Cadmium yellow Deep, Yellow Ochre, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Red, Cerulean Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Paynes Grey and Titanium White. During the process I loosely layer charcoal and colour, then deconstruct by scratching, sanding, washing off paint, placing marks or paint over the entire piece, creating a lively, active, tactile surface, reworking it until that something-magic happens in the relationship between artist, subject matter and medium.

‘Every time I start a new painting, I begin again afresh.’

Education

BA Hons Degree in Visual Art from DIT Sherkin Island 2012
BA Hons Degree in Textile and Fashion Design Solent University, Southampton, UK 1997

Upcoming solo show

December 2024, Taylor Galleries, Dublin

Selected Group Shows

2024 Blue House Gallery Summer Exhibition
2024 194th RHA Annual Exhibition, Dublin
2023/24 Winter Group Show, Taylor Galleries, Dublin
2023/24 Selected Winter Group Show, Lavit Gallery, Cork
2023 West Cork Creates “Four Seasons’ Cnoc Buí, Union Hall.
2023 Taylor Galleries,, Summer Group Exhibition Dublin
2023 Blue House Gallery, Schull
2022/23 Taylor Galleries, Winter Group Exhibition, Dublin
2022 Hammond Gallery, West Cork Artists Group Exhibition, Bantry
2022 Blue House Gallery, Schull
2021/22 Taylor Galleries Winter Group Exhibition, Dublin
2021 Taylor Galleries Summer Group Exhibition, Dublin
2021 Lavit Gallery selected Members Exhibition
2021 Blue House Gallery, Schull
2021 Boyle Arts Festival
2020/21 Taylor Galleries Winter Group Exhibition, Dublin
2020 Blue House Gallery Schull, Winter Exhibition
2020 RHA 190th Annual Exhibition
2020 Taylor Galleries Summer Group Exhibition, Dublin
2020 Lavit Gallery selected Members Exhibition, Cork
2019/20 Taylor Galleries Winter Group Exhibition, Dublin
2019 VUE Art Fair, RHA Dublin, represented by Catherine Hammond
2019 WASH II, curated by Francesca Flowers and Charles Williams, Angela Flowers (Ireland) Inc.
2019 The Blue House Gallery, West Cork
2019 Lavit Gallery Curated Members Exhibition, Cork.
2018/19 Taylor Galleries Winter Group Exhibition, Dublin
2018 VUE Art Fair, RHA Dublin represented by Catherine Hammond
2018 Taylor Galleries Summer Group exhibition, Dublin
2018 Elements: West Cork Landscapes curated by Catherine Hammond for Skibbereen Arts Festival
2018 Reflections: Ilen River, Blue House Gallery, Schull, West Cork
2017/18 Taylor Galleries Winter Group Exhibition, Dublin
2017 Blue House at Skibbereen Arts Festival, West Cork
2016 Taylor Galleries Winter Group Exhibition, Dublin
2016 MÓR, Curated Exhibition of large works for Skibbereen Arts Festival
2016 Blue House Gallery, Schull
2015 Tales and Traces, Skibbereen Arts Festival
2015 Janet Murran & Jim Turner, Blue House Gallery, Schull
2015 Winter Group Show, Taylor Gallery, Dublin
2014 Blue house gallery, Schull
2014 Skibbereen Arts Festival
2013 Seanachaí Art from Storytelling, Cill Rialaig Arts Centre, Kerry
2013 Skibbereen Arts Festival
2012 Out There, West Cork Arts Centre
2011 Skibbereen Arts Festival

Other

2023 Residency Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre
2023 Residency Tyrone Guthrie Centre
2022 Received Agility Award from the Arts Council of Ireland
VAI Member
2013, 2018, 2021 Residency, Cill Rialaig, Co. Kerry
2012 - 2015 Board Member, UIllinn, West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen

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