Tara Mooney

Year 1: Painting student LSAD I am exploring the human figure in everyday settings through abstract expressive style

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Artist exhibition-Statement 01.05.26

The first project was the building of objects, I found this hard to paint and look into but then I just thought of the close up and making it abstract something I like to do, using bright colours and inspiration from the close up sketches we did towards the beginning, I kept with it and it developed over time as I am more focused on people and drawing or painting people I found that the second brief best suited for what I like to do. I still tried to create work with the first project but I found I couldn’t connect to the colour project or figure out how to make work from it, but I still tried and engaged with the project.

In the second project of human people in everyday setting, I found it was better for me creating work and sketches for my sketchbook as it the usual subject matter I tend to focus on, people around me, and scenes from memory. I felt I was more productive and did more within that, still I felt within the project I wasn’t using time as much as I could or the studio but towards the end I got more into it and just created and enjoyed it a lot, I liked the pieces I created as they are telling a story of a time or people in that time, which I liked to capture more and felt more connected to and could translate more so within my work then the first project, but I learned that what I did like and what I didn’t and that is the best thing, tying out other ways of painting and admitting it didn’t work out. I liked this second project a lot, I learned from the first project and then took that into the second and built on feom it and captured to me what is important which is everyday moments of people, as well as getting to explore more mediums like watercolour and other textures, I felt that you could take your own perspective of human everyday moments, and make it your own and telling your own story and find out your own style and what you like.

I overall think the work I produced best showcased how much I enjoyed the painting this semester and getting the chance to explore and see what I like and don't, I would have liked to explore some more but felt I did best with the work I did within the 6-week timeframe of the projects.

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Erin Lawlor-B.1969

Visual Artist-British born-Abstract painter-London

I found this artist while researching into Diana Copperwhite, as they did a exhibition together in London. I found her work very texturally intriguing and expressive, which is something I had looked into within my sketchbook and thought would be good to reference. I really like the flowing connection of colours and combinated colours flowing within.

recognized for her large-scale, gestural oil paintings that emphasize the physical and chromatic nature of the medium. Her work is characterized by wide, sweeping brushstrokes and a rich, saturated color palette that creates a sense of "visual onomatopoeia"—where the gesture itself communicates meaning.

https://www.instagram.com/theerinlawlor?igsh=dWZqbnl2ajY3NnVt

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Anselum kieffer-German Painter and Sculptor

Anselm Kiefer - Wikipedia

Anselm Kiefer - Wikipedia

I was told to look into this artist, for the approach to size and medium. I really liked the large scale of Kieffers work as well as his use of texture and material of application of paint. Also the use of watercolours and colour palette is so similar to what I am looking at within my own practice, I found hiss work very moving and descriptive in telling a story and conveying emotion.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/490046

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Smaller sketches of people I liked

This was experiments of colour and texture of my work in process and seeing how they looked I really enjoy just painting loosely and freely within sketchbooks or just on pages to see how an experiment workd out and staple it as a book in the end.

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Handmade experimental sketchbook ideas of texture and colour

I made this really quickly, just a small A5 sketchbook from card page printed and stapled pages into it, this was just for my paintings to explore colour and textures before I add to final painting for ideas and texture of the brushes and the strokes in which it makes. I would like to continue to make more sketchbooks to just have and make more quick sketches or paintings of ideas before starting, really good way of getting an idea started.

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Sketchbook video flip through-Year one, Painting

This is a sketchbook flip through of my work from March 9th-27th April 2026-Year One, Painting

This has ideas, brainstorms, sketches and experiments that lead to paintings or just help me understand what I want to make within painting

I really enjoy working within the sketchbook and this video really I think showcases that within the body of work produced in the sketchbook and within paintings.

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Colour palette from today’s painting

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Final Painting-‘Friends in the chairs’

Medium: Acrylic on card

Size: 4 x A2

Abstract expressive

This piece for me is one of my favourites, as I really enjoy the colour palette but also the subject matter of my friends included in this scene. How it tells a story or makes you wonder what they are talking about, I like the expressive style of this piece most, how striking it is within colour and how the people work well within this space around the piece. I am putting up this work for assessment alongside the other larger painting as they have a connection within the project for me and I think they are my most successful pieces. It took only about 2 hours to complete so I’m overall very happy with result and look forward to seeing it up alongside the other paintings I did throughout this project

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Final painting process from start to end 27/04/26

Today I worked on a large piece again, I really like working larger scale and making interesting compositions and this was a my friends in the canteen done from the sketchbook previously, I love the colour palette of this work and and the colours blend in so well and work together in a way that is encoding and makes you think of the story behind it. This was the process from start to finish. I think this is my favourite piece so far.

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Michel channing-looking at magazines and books from library-Friday talks

27/03/26

I really enjoyed this talk, and how interactive this was, we each were given a physical chance to look through new newspaper art books or art books from the library. This was interesting, though my favourite was the newspaper the size of the paper and the way the artworks were displayed were visually and clearly illustrated and drew you in. We were also put into groups and given a list of questions to talk about our favourite paintings, movies or just colours, this was fun and informative in getting to know the people within painting well. The physical art books were also just better than looking online at an article or exhibition it’s something you can flip through and find other things that you like which you couldn’t do online which was also something I noticed too. This also introduced us to the section at the back of the library with the chairs where these books are kept and which is the photo reference included at the front of the post.

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Michel channing-Friday talk artists 17/04/26-The last talk-Artists sketchbooks

9.45-10.45 discussion

We looked into a few artists in the hour from 9.45-10.45 that morning, looking at contemporary artists and their practice in 5-10 mins video clips on YouTube links and then discussed after each video what we each thought. I found it interesting, looking at and then discussing these artists and what we found interesting about them or how their work was to us and how we each had different perspectives about each artist or of their work.

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Two sketches I want to explore further A3 size

These two sketches of both my friend Roisin and my friends, Anna, Roisin and Zoey as well I really liked this compositionally and I am adding watercolour and going to do this in acrylic with layers of paint and abstract painting. I think they would make for visually interesting paintings and they tell a story in my opinion of the community within the painting room of my friends I have there who inspire me.

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Michael canning-Painting talks Friday March 27th

Galleries, and exhibitions

This was an insightful presentation by Michael talking about different Instagram accounts of art museums/galleries and artists that we should be following locally in Limerick but also around Ireland and abroad getting a look into their work and how others present their work. I visited some of the galleries like the People's Park gallery and the Hunt Museum as well as the Limerick city gallery, and the National Gallery in Dublin. I found this very interesting some I knew and some before I didn’t.

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Michael channing-Friday 20th March talk about artist

This was such an interesting introduction on Friday, we were shown YouTube videos on contemporary artists and their practice and how they present their work and I found this very inspiring and helpful for my own practice learning from the artists. This was an hour of watching some great artists I will link to them. Looking at sketchbooks and how to document your own work which helped a lot.

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Poses-life drawing

Both poses up on the studio wall after done the class, I really enjoyed the experiment of the 10-20 minutes poses and working with the hand and eyes to capture quick motion and action.

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First pose, second drawing-life drawing

I really like this one this was done within 10 mins pose with charcoal on newsprint paper, I really liked the texture of the paper and how easy it was to blend then after.

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Life drawing today-Monday 27

I really enjoyed the life drawing today, and the charcoal and how the looked with the abstract expressive lines of the figure. I think it turned out really successfully this was the 2nd pose, and the third drawing I did within 15 mins. This was done on newsprint paper with compressed charcoal