Maureen Connolly Down, United Kingdom
N. Irish artist living and working on the Ards peninsula in Co. Down. I lived a large part of my life in California working in Economics but I have always maintained my love of art and creating art. My journey now is mostly about making art. I work with the figure and landscape while slowly moving towards more abstracted expression.
My life is my practice. I've always had two passions. One for art and the other for dance. I maintained both as a hobbies for many years but on my return to Northern Ireland, I decided to teach dance (flamenco) while pursuing a degree in Fine Art. My experience at art school was not a good one as I had difficulty relating the conceptual stance of the art program with my normal way of expressing myself, in dance and through the body. So art school stalled after the Associate level and I decided to more fully engross myself in dance. I danced and taught for the next 10 years until injury brought it to an end. I once again turned to art. My art practice has been mostly figurative as I still believe in the bodies ability to communicate all aspects of the human condition. I have studied and am aware of the physical body's capacities in movement and stillness. Movement because of my dance background and stillness through my constant study of the body through life drawing. Currently, I am moving into more abstract art work with the figure as I move away from the physical expression of the body into a more internal and intuitive study of my expression. I am working mostly in acrylic, mixed media and collage for abstract work and charcoal and soft pastel for life drawing. In addition to figurative work, I also enjoy en plein air landscape painting which I experienced for the first time in summer 2022. Growing up in the Irish countryside gave me a deep love of nature which has also never left me. I enjoy long rambles and walks in the countryside and now in addition to my camera, try to always carry a sketchpad and pencil, a practice I hope to deepen into painting in2023.
