My dissertation is composed of

three sections in which I focus

on a particular artist and relate
their work to my final major
project. I have found that Hughie O’Donogue
throughout my whole course
looking at other artists has
been an intrinsic part in my
beginning to understand the
relationship between artist and Antony Hegarty
art. How an individual’s
background and views become
a foundation for building a
signature and distinctive style,
seems to be a vital part of
moving from making art and Anselm Kiefer
being an artist. *Front cover image, Light on Millisle Beach, Waterless Lithograph, Ben Grove
“Initial ideas are almost always no use; that’s how paintings grow. In Cezanne
hesitancies led to triumph- the brushwork flickers about the form of the
mountain.” (O’Donoghue 2000)
I use this quote to introduce the artist Hughie
O’Donoghue as I feel it sums up an attitude to
painting that has become clearer to me during
my final painting, namely, that it is very
seldom that I can decide to paint something
and then do it. It is in this context that initial
ideas almost become redundant. It is the tiny
almost indefinable ideas that happen in a
fleeting moment that all add up to painting,
and that as O’Donoghue put it, is “how they
grow”.

I first became aware of the artist Hughie

O’Donoghue during a first semester tutorial,
Carina had mentioned his use of encaustics,
which at the time was a medium that I was
getting interested in. It was towards the end of
my pathway stage that I started to think how
his work could tie in to my final major project.
When reading about how O’Donoghue works
Hughie O’Donoghue, Baia II 2003. 211x191cm
and how he confronts his painting I have begun
to understand some of the difficulties that I
have
It wascome across.to read in one of his emails to James Hamilton, the author of “Painting,
interesting
Memory and Myth”, that O’Donoghue was concerned about the interpretation of his works that
contained images of his father Daniel. Although these works could easily be thought of as being
about his father they are in fact not intended as such. This got me thinking about my own
work…
…what I am attempting to do is to tackle the subject of gender
but using the landscape to portray a third place something not
otherworldly but imagined. The textures and colours I will use,
will hopefully remind the viewer of a familiar place. I think what
O’Donoghue is doing in using the images of his father is
creating an image, that people will find within, something
familiar and recognisable despite it’s obscurity. He refers to the
archive of photograph’s and letters belonging to his father
which became his after his fathers death as “relating to an
individual life during extraordinary times” but then went on to
say “I think it is likely that if I had stumbled upon an archive
like this in a junk shop I would probably have used it in my Hughie O’Donoghue,
work” No.13 Berlin Red Letter Days 113x113cm

I think this is most interesting because what the

general public perceive in O’Donoghue’s work in this
series is far removed from the artists own intentions.
That in itself could become a catalyst on which to base
my own difficulties surrounding my subject matter. To,
in some way defer or project my intentions through
imagery not explicitly connected to the subject matter.
O’Donoghue’s describes the link between meaning and
imagery in his painting; “the search for meaning in the
action and life of an individual is to a large extent what
the pictures themselves mean”.

Hughie O’Donoghue,
No.50 Cologne Red Letter Days. 113x113cm
 As part of my research into Hughie
O’Donoghue’s work I made a trip to
the IMMA Dublin for a major
exhibition of his work. Seeing his
work in the flesh had a huge impact
on me, his work is on a huge scale
but necessarily so, to put his images
and found objects into their rightful
context. The visit to his exhibition
enabled me to appreciate the surface
qualities and the contrasting gloss
and matt finishes that he puts to
amazing use drawing the viewer into
the painting.

Millisle Beach No.2 Ben Groves.

Encaustic with photographic elements

O’Donoghue appears to use encaustic in his work

Hughie O’Donoghue,Baiae II 46 x 58cm
which I have tried to confirm in my research but
most pieces are usually identified as “Oil On
Canvas”. I’m sure
from looking at his paintings that encaustic is
employed at certain stages which are then dry
brushed, thus building up the pages of the
painting.
O’Donoghue says at the end
of his correspondence
“perhaps the works point or
shine a light in the direction
of the obscured (rather than
anonymous) individual.”
Perhaps what I need to do is
figure out what direction I
want to take my subject
matter and remind myself
that I am in control of what I
produce. I was asked not long
ago why I wanted to paint
and at the time I gave an
awkward answer mentioning Hughie O’Donoghue,(in his studio) featuing,Parable
the love of the process. Of The Prodigal Son.
Having more time to dwell on that question I think the reason I want to paint
is because it gives me confidence. Before I started this course I lacked any
shred of confidence and suffered because of that, but somehow, by painting I
have acquired some confidence in myself. The Canadian abstract
expressionist painter Jean-Paul Riopelle stated, “When I hesitate, I do not
paint. When I paint, I do not hesitate.”
I think that extends to self confidence, when I’m not feeling self confident I
don’t paint but when I paint I am confident, which is good, especially for me.
 I think a lot of good painters must be
extremely confident about what they
want to do, not in an arrogant sense,
but in the sense that painting is
absolutely what they must do even if
it is hard going at times. The feeling
that wanting to paint is a force from
inside was analogized brilliantly by
the artist Paul Klee when he said,
“and yet, standing at his appointed
place, the trunk of a tree, [the artist]
does nothing other than gather and
pass on what comes to him from the
depths. He neither serves nor rules-
he transmits.” (Herbet 1999)
The changing face of moo cow farm No.7 37x57cm

In this sense painting becomes much more

than illustration it is a transformation or a
transmission of the source, the painter. Just as
the sap of a tree travels up it’s trunk up into
the many branches those ideas divide and sub
divide almost infinitely and produce foliage or
fruit the outward sign of all of that effort.
Millisle Beach No..4, Ben Groves.
I wanted experiment with O’Donoghue’s
colours and subtlety in his compositions.
During my final major project I
became aware of an artist called
Antony Hegarty, a singer songwriter,
who recently has exhibited some of
his own artwork at the ISIS gallery in
London. I sat captivated as I watched
the tail end of BBC’s culture show
performing one of his songs, “Her
eyes are underneath the ground”. The
moment I saw him I was mesmerized
something about the way he sang
made the hairs stand up on the back Antony Hegarty;
of my neck. Image courtesy of www.onlyangels.free.fr

That night I searched for concert dates and booked tickets at his June 1st
performance at the Waterfront Hall. Anthony Hegarty sings about his
experiences as someone whose gender resides in a third place with songs
such as “Another World” and “For Today I Am A Boy”. In my statement of
intent for my final major project I refer to a “third place” this has been hard
for me to translate into painting and I know it will be a long process for me in
figuring it out, but if I can express myself in some way that relates to my
experiences dealing with challenging gender issues, then I feel I will be
making art that, going back to the tree analogy, comes from my roots. Antony
Hegarty is an artist who I feel accomplishes that expression of inner feeling to
an incredible level of sensitivity and for that reason has become a fountain of
inspiration for me and my art.
Antony Hegarty grew up knowing he was an outsider, but it
seems he realized at a young age the need to stay loyal to
one’s own truth and not appear to be one thing to the world
outside and remain another person inside. Reading about his
relationship with his artwork reveals his deep sense of
connection with his spiritual side:
"I have drawn and
made things since I
was a kid. The visual
world is a place I can
dream in solitude. I
think about the
present and how can
I reach out to gather
the past and the
future and draw them
towards me. I try to
follow the lines,
tracing the invisible.
Sometimes it's a
simple matter of
bringing something
into focus, or drawing Drive Me Home (2007) C Print 30" x 
forward the spirit I 28"
imagine lies hidden (primary materials - newsprint, tape)
inside a thing. “ ©Antony Hegarty
This kind of spiritual attunement that Antony Hegarty has,
comes through both in his lyrics and his visual artwork. The
personal statement supporting his exhibition at the ISIS stated,
The Ocean and The Land (2008) ”Hegarty depicts landscapes haunted by the past and the
C Print 33" x 40" future, seeking to identify a sense of crisis, morality and truth
(primary materials - paper, print, acrylic, upon which a path forward can be forged.” I feel the stage I
wax, thread, pencil) © Antony Hegarty find myself in now with respect to my art is one that requires
me to similarly identify my own truth and construct a path that
both emboldens me and inspires me to continue expressing
myself in my paintings.
 My final artist is Anselm Kiefer, I first looked at his work as part of my photography research as Mark
had mentioned his work for contextualising within our photogram workshops. It was Mark who again
sparked the re-interest in Kiefer’s work as during one tutorial he had shown me a thin exhibition
program he had for one of Kiefer’s exhibitions. What I had not appreciated up till that point was the
scale of Kiefer’s work but their scale isn’t there just to impose and engulf the viewer, it almost
seems as if Kiefer is depicting say a ploughed field then we the viewer must feel as though we are
actually in that ploughed field. The scale is almost driven by the type or form of his materials so as
to place them in context, so a clump of straw is just as it would be if we were standing next to it in
it’s original environment.

Anselm Kiefer, Nuremburg, 1982. Acrylic ,emulsion and straw on canvas,2.8m x 3.8m
Kiefer layers the surface with dirt, straw,
lead, tree branches and twigs, seeds and
dried flowers, to name just a few. He is
also known for using photography and text
within his imagery almost like codes that
emit signals from history and memory.The
Independent said in a review of Kiefer’s
February 2007 exhibition at London’s White
Cubes Gallery: “Great art is about
transformation. And transforming
experience and transforming materials are
what Anselm Kiefer specializes in. The
contrasting themes of destruction and
recreation, violent upheaval and spiritual
renewal, underpin much of the artist's
work.”
Anselm Kiefer,The Red Sea, 1984
Oil emulsion and shellac on
Photograph and woodcut on
Canvas with strips of lead. 2.74m x 4.18m
The Book by Anselm Kiefer, 1979-85 1.9m x 3.3m
Oil, emulsion, acrylic, pencil, plaster and lead book
I feel my piece for my final major project echoes some
of the sentiment that is found within Kiefer’s work
especially that of transformation. I think of myself as
an inventor first and painter second I love to find a
new purpose in both objects and materials and I feel I
have done this in my final piece, a triptych which I
made firstly with bleached cotton material and timber
then with expanding polystyrene, sheetrock, tissue
paper, beeswax, damar resin, household paint,
watercolour, acrylic paint, oil paint, tree bark, silicone,
rabbit skin glue, raw pigment, enamel, bitumen, and
turpentine. The objects I used both came from a burnt
out car from the beach car park, a section of tyre
which appropriately had a rather female quality and a
radiator fan which in itself only appropriated the
meaning I was looking for so I did alter that slightly
with the use of some pliers a jigsaw a blow torch and a
This is a recent photograph taken of my final piece, I have not done anything
to it since Carina saw it on the 9th May. I am pleased with the overall
composition and after applying some of the comments from Mark and
Elaine I feel it runs well as you read it from left to right with the different
Areas of texture and colour blending well together. My final piece is
1.87m x 4.56m this represents both the ratio of dimensions
that I feel reminds me of a landscape or panorama and logistically the
largest sized triptych I could produce based on the materials I could source,
especially the canvas, and the size of my doorway into my studio.
 Hand detail Found objects detail
I have included some close up photographs
of my work so as to highlight some of the
areas within the piece. I was glad of the
chat I had with Carol about my idea of
introducing the figure, which at the time
was in the form of a mannequin. I was
especially moved by Carol’s comments
about the role of the hands and how they
can be used to convey emotion. Upon
reflection I decided to
leave the mannequin idea on the shelf,
maybe for another project or piece, instead
I have brought in the figure as a symbol of
transformation along
with some sweeping brush strokes to
signify the “bird gehrl” from one of Antony
Hegarty’s songs.
Distant figure detail
 Conclusion,
Finding a way to visually express thoughts and feelings is a process that brings
great happiness but is bittersweet at the same time. The happiness comes from
the goose bumps when something clicks inside and confirms that this is what I
want to do with my life, it gives me meaning. The anguish is knowing that what
you want to express is deeply personal, something kept hidden for so long.
Having been at the edge of living or dying has been painful for those around me
to see but I found the strength to see past my millstone and came out on the
good side. Small steps in the right direction have led me to this point where I
find myself enjoying the direction my life is heading. Having the self-belief and
motivation that this course has given me has produced a new spirit in me and a
more confident positive person. I now want to get busy being a human being.

IMMA trip photo, blurred lines became a theme in the early development
of my FMP, I also saw a link to the colours coming through using the bitumen
In my painting.