Artist of the Month 2021

Ronan Cahill

Please Mrs Cahill we need to talk to you about Ronan

I live and breathe art. Like most artists my intention is to take a blank surface and recreate something new that lives and breathes on it, whether abstract or representational, although lately I feel a gravitational pull toward the former.  To create something I am proud to call my own. Every time I show up, the puzzle the conundrum is fresh and new, a challenge. I love it.

Colour is important to me, I let a lot of the mixing process happen on the page. I love the watercolour process. The runs and drips just add to the unpredictable experimental nature of the works.  Water plus Colour, line and wash. My only job is to turn up at the page and allow the creation to take place.

I have started to lean more and more toward the abstract since 2017… tired of slavishly obeying my eyes to instruct what appears before me on the blank page.

Abstract thoughts in the digital age  

Unique one off gilcee prints of my abstract digital art. I use photographs of my paintings to build up the layers, as well as sub-conscious digital drawing done mainly late at night when i am too tired for the conscious rational part of my brain to dictate and plan.     

Exile, erosion of Identity, imagined worlds, and particle physics are central themes. What is life? Universes of particles scattered all around. My work represents a digital space I can own, in which I can ask great questions of myself, and hide. Lost worlds collide, are destroyed and created, in various stages between development and falling apart, mirroring the trials, and victories in life.    

I’m a self-taught artist and have worked as an engineer for 20 years. I am an engineer and an artist. I am 3 different artists. I love painting nature and landscapes to try and capture the beautiful force in front of our eyes. Another artist within me loves to show up at the page/canvas and paint from within via line, colour and form to create abstract works. The third artist within me likes to take all the artworks of the first two artists and remix and layer them into digital works.

I photograph the paintings, using them to create digital art. My initial art is cannibalised and taken on a subconscious walk through digital at night when I’m too tired for rational thought. Paintings are cut, pasted, and manipulated, into new media, eventually emerge unrecognisable. Layer is added to layer until a finished piece appears. I gilcee print only one of each on quality paper. 

Themes aren’t always understood. I just show up and the subconscious takes charge. As artists our only necessity is to show-up at the tablet, page or canvas. I have drawn and painted all my life. Without art I am nothing.    

2016 Solo Exhibition at the British Embassy in Luanda, Angola of my Luanda watercolours. I have exhibited at the Livingston Art Association, the Melrose Gallery, Line Gallery Online Exhibition and the Hubcap online Exhibition. I won first prize in the annual Visual Art Society exhibition in 1997 at UCD. 1997 UCD Bachelor Mechanical Engineering. Recent courses attended include Alvaro Castagnet, Aine Divine, Lesley Banks, and Alfons Bytautas.   

https://ronancahillartwork.wixsite.com/mysite
https://instagram.com/ronancahillart?r=nametag

Facebook /Ronan.Cahill.50

Twitter. @RonanCahill15