Helen Ireland

I divide the paper up with pencil and use layers of watercolour and gouache to build up a texture so the colour becomes both deep and transparent. Through repeating washes of colour one can built up a weight which gives the work a handmade quality which I want, it’s the imperfection that I am drawn to.  I have always been interested in grids and like to find equivalents in the landscape and in a domestic setting. Through the act of making and repetition work changes, bricks in buildings, a tree with the same leaf, each one is slightly different.  I want to achieve this slight differences in the way of geometric pattern in my work.  A triangle or square on first looking are the same but are slightly different because of the use of painting and line. Relationships between shapes can change through contrast and harmony, and through use of colour and paint which create a pace and rhythm.

During lockdown I started rereading passages from Bachelard’s ‘The Poetics of Space’ reflecting on the intimate spaces we live in. The book is amazingly visual….

“To withdraw into one’s corner is undoubtedly a meagre expression.  But despite its eagerness, it has numerous images, some, perhaps, of great antiquity, images that are psychologically primitive. At times, the simpler the image, the vaster the dreams”

“When we recall the hours we have spent in our corners, we remember above all silence, the silence of our thoughts”

“The idea of withdrawing into one’s corner!”

The quote mentioned above gives me a mental image of a space with different shapes. Is something inside and outside?  Is it a box or a corner? Dark or light? Seen or unseen?  I like to feel that I am pushing the boundaries of drawing and try to find different rhythms of working. I hope that I manage to give the person who is looking at my work a visual experience though purely looking.  Although drawing is often seen as less valuable or of a lower status, I find is central to my practice.