About Me
About Me
Natural History & Fine Art Celebrating the Outdoors
I was born and raised in the Connemara village of Cornamona, located on the northern shores of Lough Corrib, and now live in Galway city. I attended Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, graduating with a B.A (HONS) degree in Fine Art in 2004, and have been dedicated to creating art inspired by Ireland’s landscapes ever since.
My work is currently on display at the following galleries: Trinity Gallery, Dublin. The Lavit Gallery in Cork, The Lady’s Buttery Gallery , Cong, Co Mayo and Gallery 1608, Bushmills, Co Antrim. My work has also been acquired for private collections in Bermuda, California, New York and Scranton, Philadelphia.
In June/July 2012, I held a solo exhibition of my work at the Dillon Gallery in the Culturlann McAdam Ó’Fiaich in Belfast.
I am also very excited to announce that I have been chosen to be part of the 2020/21 Online Program of the Contemporary Irish Art Centre of Los Angeles, which will see work showcased by CIACLA on various online platforms throughout the coming year.
Growing up in Connemara I have always been intrigued by the many and varied abandoned houses in this part of Ireland. Many have survived since famine times due to their thick stone walls and simple but solid structures. They have been vacated along the way for many reasons; emigration, hardship family lines dying off etc.
To me they have a wonderful sense of history and mystery about them, and always seem full of character. They come from bygone eras, and in many instances stand side by side with modern day irish “bungalow bliss”. Many of them are now used as sheds or cow byres. They can be a myriad of colours; in many cases the owners have had to use only whatever paint is on hand to maintain them. To me they are full of beauty, but always with a sense of desolation about them.
Because these buildings have a unique character due to their age and history, I have tried recently to use paint in different and inventive
ways to capture the atmosphere that surrounds them. As well as using the traditional brush methods of applying paint, I have experimented, with techniques involving spilling, mopping and scraping back the paint, to create the shapes and moods that I associate with these beautiful yet mysterious structures.
I feel that John Gray really captured what I strive to achieve in my work, when he said in a review of my recent exhibition, “‘Connemara light’ may be a well worn cliché both of tourist literature and the history of landscape painting in the area, but Ryan herself extols it, and succeeds in bringing a fresh vibrancy to it.
Original paintings
by Bridie Ryan
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