When flames and snakes are your neighbours, they can't help but be part of the story. This rough, heavy-duty cotton canvas has been in my studio for probably eight years. It was unprimed, so I spent months applying thin layers of oil paint before it went anywhere. I like the dryness that comes from all that soakage and the roughness of the surface. There were wildfires near the sea, and you could see the glow of orange at night in the distance. I was grappling with a shape similar to the one I am painting here back in Ireland. I tried it again when I got to Italy, but it wasn't until I saw the shape as a flame that it unlocked itself. On some of the smaller landscapes, these flames appeared …

Routes are created by choices, taking you to known spaces or surprises. Paintings take many paths. When I start to work on a new canvas, I have no idea where it will go, literally and figuratively. So I take any chance to travel and bring my work with me in whatever form possible, like these paintings I started in Ireland and brought to Italy. I like the (long!) drive to Italy - it’s a great time for …

I started this painting by drawing sculpture shapes into a large canvas. I was enjoying myself, and it soon became quite busy. I used a light blue wash to tone it down, but I wanted the drawn elements to be visible underneath. The overall effect was that the painting took on the sense of a stone, so I added the large abstract flowers to bring back some life. Then I began to paint in earnest. At first, randomly, then instinctively. At this stage, I put the canvas …

This is the journey of “Acrobats and Flowers”, one of the oil paintings in my solo show currently on view at John Martin Gallery in London. I got really into painting these black linear shapes on a red canvas but ended up painting over it in the end. It gave me the idea of painting vertical lines as a central feature, and this is the canvas that absorbed …

I’ve been working on this painting since April 2019, almost two years. Not all the time. I face the canvas against the wall for long stretches in between painting sessions. I try to change the composition by turning the canvas sideways or upside down. The process is the only thing that remains constant. Today I decided to …

In this studio vlog, I am switching it up between shaping wax sculptures and working on large oil paintings. I made a huge patch of yellow oil paint, and you can see me using it on several canvases. I often paint on several canvases at the same time. Yellow is one of the first colours of spring. The plants outside have …

I bought this green years ago when I was travelling. Oh god, do you remember when you could travel! That's when I got it, but I never used it. The reason I never used it - I never had a reason to use it. I never knew what colours it would go with. But since I have been in lockdown, in a …

I found this image in a German art magazine and was captured by the movement in it. The narrative is about a saint on a journey. Sitting here in the studio, a year into the pandemic, I realise that the idea of travelling has become so alien to me. Ironic, considering that Christopher is the patron saint of travellers. I made a promise to myself to go and find this Patinir painting in the flesh when all this Covid is over. What’s happening in the painting is just as interesting. Patinir’s treatment of the …

It’s a day for ducks. The rain is lashing down outside while I’m trying some thin line drawings on canvas. I have been thinking of introducing thin lines for a while, and my sketchbooks are filled with drawings in this vein.

The drawings just have to manage to jump from sketchbook to canvas now. Even if they make it across, I will probably rub the lines out or paint over them in the coming days; who knows...

The oil paintings locked me out, and I couldn’t paint, but luckily my wax for the bronze sculpture saved me. I like working in wax. It’s a great medium that allows you to get lost in the process. I also began painting into these tiny etching prints with acrylic and ink. The line drawing in these is very different from painting in oil. I think the time spent working on the etchings loosened me up enough to return to the oils on canvas, and you can see how I am finding my way back to them towards the end of the video. I am enjoying painting in oils, but the paintings I am working on at the end of …

This is the studio story of two dark oil paintings as they try to resolve being invaded by a flying beast with a Cupid on its back. Sometimes being in an artist studio is like a day at the races. You need to take a chance. This vlog is about taming the beast and facing fears while dreaming of adventure—thoughts prevalent in the past months of 2020 and now 2021. In my work, they have surfaced with this Cupid creature on a flying …

This episode of the vlog is a prime example of the non-linear path of any creative endeavour. You see me introduce working on paper alongside oil painting. My mind skips from flying tiger motifs to self-portraits and back to abstract painting, all in a single day. Getting lost in the process is a great way to access another level of creativity and distract myself from what …

I made that splash precisely a year ago today. And what a year it’s been. I wanted to splash things from a height for a long time. Somehow New Year’s Eve 2019 was the perfect time. I remember stealing into the studio and making two cerise type pinks balanced with an apple green as my flying colours. I laid the large canvas flat on the ground and went upstairs to set up my ammunition. Then I let fly with the pink, just abandoning…

The garden around the shed I paint in has slowly changed colours and shapes since I began working there back in March. It was bound to influence my work in some way. I feel like I want to paint flowers. Not in a photographic way but so can allow nature into these new paintings. I don’t analyse it, just let it roam wherever it wants…