New works exhibited at the Kenmare Butter Market in October and November 2022.
View a selection of Fionnuala's new works here.
Fionnuala Nolan's paintings seem to emerge from some mythical Ireland we all recognise but can't easily express. Our instinct is to cling to recognisable hints of mountains, cliffs, fields and oceans – elements of Irish landscape painting - that materialise out of a soft mist or disappear in a torrent of sudden 'weather'. But are we looking from above the clouds, or from below the waves? We begin to see and feel the whole landscape all at once, succumbing to the elements, allowing ourselves to drown in the terrible elemental beauty.
It is familiar, we are not afraid. We dive in.
Fionnuala's latest works further embrace the sheer sensuousness of paint to find new pathways in Irish landscapes, real and imagined. New exhibition starts October 29, Kenmare Butter Market.
All Fionnuala's work starts in the landscape, with sketches, with fragments of land and sea, painted en plein air.
Photo: Cill Rialaig Residency 2022
"The recurring theme of Fionnuala Nolan's work is space. It might start from a physical space, a landscape, but the earth and the sky are only the soft edges, the failing parameters of eternity. We are invited to enter this infinity, comforted by the familiarity of boggy green Irish lands, and temptingly summery skies, but once we succumb we are frighteningly free, released into ourselves and suddenly boundless. This is a landscape, familiar yet unknown; it is our internal selves."
© Fionnuala Nolan 2022