St Gabriel's Drain

Oil Pastel on Canvas. While this project started with exploring the laneways of Clontarf, it gradually extended beyond the locality into the wider Dublin area. My objective was to explore transitory and normally unseen spaces and to capture the beauty in everyday, normally unseen objects that can be found there, challenging the viewer to contemplate these everyday objects in a new way.
By using the black background and reducing and disturbing the image components, I strove to create a sense of eeriness. In St Gabriels Drain, the black background allows the colours and textures in normally unseen objects like drain pipes to take centre stage. By shattering the image and disturbing the original composition, I tried to create an atmosphere of ambiguity where one can experience the uncertainty of loss of the familiar.