Shelagh Hourahane
For some time I have used the discarded ordinary objects found on land and around old hill farms as the focus for drawings and collage paintings. Together with specific elements from the landscape, such as individual trees, rocks, buildings, and walls, these things provide a vehicle for interpreting the landscape, its past and present character. I include some images that are clearly recognisable, while others are transformed as if by the passage of history, the changes in their substance and the emotional values that I perceive them to have.
My feeling is for things in their material sense and I express that through the way that I use media. I like the immediacy of pastel as it combines richness and softness of colour. In my work I also want to gently challenge the assumption that a drawing or painting must be contained within a squared surface.