Artist’s Statement
Deirdre made the following Artists statement for an exhibition in 2010 after she had finished her studies at the Victoria College of Art. Her words give an insight as to how and why she painted the way she did. Many of the paintings displayed on this website were done around that time, but the work that she did afterwards would also fit the description of her methods. In the statement, she references ‘the books I have made’. This refers to the fact that through a self publishing website, she produced four books of collections of her photography and paintings.
“…the paintings I am displaying to you are from recent efforts to freely interpret ideas or images. The swirls and curves; open compositions; textural brush stroke and ground; optical colour mixing; and dark and light contrasts, are some of the art elements I have used to illustrate my ideas.
Deirdre Kelly,
Some paintings survive in spite of the artist, some thrive. I have had paintings that demand to be finished like a child stamping his foot, and pulling on my coat. Others are happy to quietly melt into the shelf, only to be nudging the artist (me) to uncover them from the darkness and let them show off, even to be hung in the bathroom. Others are ideas or exercises that have served their time, and can cheerfully be resurrected again by painting over them.
In most of these works, the storyline is purposefully vague, but there is a common thread of autobiography – not just from my hand, but from my experience – this is where the mood of the paintings come from. This is not without purpose, but is mostly unintentional, and plays with my own self-knowledge.
Photography is what has trained my eye to see beauty in ugliness, textures in what would appear smooth, and ranges of colour that I newly discover. The books I have made, display some of the work of mine, some recent, and some saved for any future reason. I rely on some images to jump start me in a painting, for colour combinations, and many other things.
I hope you will get some enjoyment, interest, and possibly humour from some of this work. If I haven’t yet found my own style, I’d have to say that a certain style has certainly found me.”
Victoria 2010.