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Meet the artist...
I'm Helen Magee an Irish artist living in Delgany, Co. Wicklow. Although not formally trained in Art College I have painted all my adult life in between juggling a career, raising a family and running an illustration business. Over the years I have been developing and exploring my oil painting techniques under the mentorship of great artists like Anne Blayney, Jenny McCann, the late Margaret Seaver, and have been inspired and encouraged by friend and artist Michael Gemmell. There are a great deal of talented artists in my family. My mother Katherine has been a lifetime source of artistic inspiration and encouragement to me. She is a talented lady and has sold many oil paintings in exhibitions throughout the years and brought us up on the smell of oil paint and turps. At 86 years old she still gives me invaluable advice on my art and creative projects. Right now my oils can be found in the Boatyard Gallery in Greystones and in private collections both in Ireland and abroad. I have exhibited in local art shows and selected group shows, in 1995 Terenure College in Aid of St. Michael's Hospital, in 2018 'Wicklow Artists A Gathering in Aid of St. Vincent de Paul', and 2019 'A Gathering in Aid of Save the Children Yemen', La Touche Place, Greystones. My paintings are often of good days and places in my life where I captured images and then they captured me. Sometimes great colours themselves inspire me to paint. I paint with gusto and generous quantities of paint using lively knife or brush strokes. Life, light, texture and movement is important to achieve. I want the viewer to visually join me in the action like they were beside me at the easel. Each artwork tells my own story about a place or experience and my new abstract work does this in a more intuitive way. If you'd like to know a few more details about me see the Q&A below :-) |
Q&A WITH HELEN:
When did it all start?
As a child I would sit watching my mother painting at her easel and was influenced and inspired. I loved watching her beautiful paintings come to life which are hung on our walls at home and sold at exhibitions. I used to produce my own little masterpieces and knew from this early age that I would like to be an artist some day.
Did you always paint?
In the early 1990's when I got married I began my oil painting journey, selling my paintings in local exhibitions in County Wicklow and Dublin and to some private collectors of my work.
Then I got busy creating a family, which was followed by creating an illustration business which took up all my time.
After this busy hiatus I finally have more time to focus on creating oil paintings again.
Where do you paint?
I'm very lucky that I have a lovely studio in my garden in Delgany overlooking the Sugarloaf Mountain where I paint and feel inspired every day.
What is your main process?
I usually paint on canvas and prefer to use a palette knife as it allows me to create expressive impasto oil paintings with interesting movement and texture. I enjoy the fascinating three dimensional quality of the paint which adds another dimension to the visual and painting experience. I enjoy the relationship between colours when they blend on the canvas and achieve this particularly well when using oils.
What's your favourite subject matter?
Irish landscapes and seascapes are my favourite but I am always trying out new challenges with recent work leaning towards an abstract direction.
Apart from the artists you mentioned and also your mother, what other artists have inspired your work?
There are so many, but the artists that make me so excited that I want to set up and paint immediately are:
Vincent Van Gogh for his colours, movement, compositions and texture.
David Hockney, again for his colours, subject matter, audacious use of different mediums, composition and scale of his work.
Roderic O'Conor for all his creations, love his brushwork, use of light and his colour palettes.
Maurice MacGonigal - his colours, subject matter and illustrative nature of his work.
What do you enjoy most about painting?
For me it's a sensory process that feels smooth and luxurious, each painting has a life of its own.
From the initial sketch to the final stroke of paint it is an intuitive experience and using the palette knife feels the most natural to me. I work with happy anticipation as the paint is mixed, shaped, and moulded on the canvas creating form.
And when the paint dries all that knife action is frozen in time and a unique visual world is born on canvas to last forever. It's magic.
When did it all start?
As a child I would sit watching my mother painting at her easel and was influenced and inspired. I loved watching her beautiful paintings come to life which are hung on our walls at home and sold at exhibitions. I used to produce my own little masterpieces and knew from this early age that I would like to be an artist some day.
Did you always paint?
In the early 1990's when I got married I began my oil painting journey, selling my paintings in local exhibitions in County Wicklow and Dublin and to some private collectors of my work.
Then I got busy creating a family, which was followed by creating an illustration business which took up all my time.
After this busy hiatus I finally have more time to focus on creating oil paintings again.
Where do you paint?
I'm very lucky that I have a lovely studio in my garden in Delgany overlooking the Sugarloaf Mountain where I paint and feel inspired every day.
What is your main process?
I usually paint on canvas and prefer to use a palette knife as it allows me to create expressive impasto oil paintings with interesting movement and texture. I enjoy the fascinating three dimensional quality of the paint which adds another dimension to the visual and painting experience. I enjoy the relationship between colours when they blend on the canvas and achieve this particularly well when using oils.
What's your favourite subject matter?
Irish landscapes and seascapes are my favourite but I am always trying out new challenges with recent work leaning towards an abstract direction.
Apart from the artists you mentioned and also your mother, what other artists have inspired your work?
There are so many, but the artists that make me so excited that I want to set up and paint immediately are:
Vincent Van Gogh for his colours, movement, compositions and texture.
David Hockney, again for his colours, subject matter, audacious use of different mediums, composition and scale of his work.
Roderic O'Conor for all his creations, love his brushwork, use of light and his colour palettes.
Maurice MacGonigal - his colours, subject matter and illustrative nature of his work.
What do you enjoy most about painting?
For me it's a sensory process that feels smooth and luxurious, each painting has a life of its own.
From the initial sketch to the final stroke of paint it is an intuitive experience and using the palette knife feels the most natural to me. I work with happy anticipation as the paint is mixed, shaped, and moulded on the canvas creating form.
And when the paint dries all that knife action is frozen in time and a unique visual world is born on canvas to last forever. It's magic.
