Featured Artist – Aoife Joyce

Aoife Joyce, an artist with a vivid imaginative style, has produced some stunning and imaginative paintings in her career.  Three samples of her recent paintings are detailed below.  Enjoy! —

I feel that my childhood in Galway played a major part in my style and inspirations today. Having so much space and beautiful surroundings to play and grow up in, gave me the freedom to make the most of my active imagination and it also gave me an escape from times that needed escaping. My style of painting today reflects those learnings with ‘colour, vibrancy , imagination..’ . I felt that the freedom I had as a child gave me the opportunity to use my imagination to the fullest, which as a child is what is so important, and so because I enjoyed this opportunity of playing out fantasy games and scenarios so strongly, it helped me keep that ability to tap into the imagination with me into my adult years.

With regards to my art and my style , I use it as an escape, as I did as a child, however in slightly a different way. The fantasy and imaginary worlds I  go to in my paintings are not to escape life but to escape TO something different for a while, something or some place unreal and magical. Being in these magical places are what bring out the faces and scenes in my paintings. Anything from a different world intrigues me, as it is the not knowing if these faces or places could be real that is exciting and mystical.

"Flowing Water" by Aoife Joyce

‘Flowing Thoughts’ – This painting I did last April shortly after my Dad passed away. It was a hard painting to do.  I had an exhibit coming up in May and when he died in April I wasnt sure if I would be able to go ahead with it. This was the first painting I attempted after he died, I was upset at times trying to get it done. I decided to do the flowing water look with the paint as i was not sure what to do with the background, and I guess my crying helped with how to finish it.

"Sad Clown" by Aoife Joyce

‘Sad Clown’ – Funnily enough , this painting was done in very good spirits. I had an urge to paint a clown, and my thoughts at the time were that a sad clown is more interesting than a smiling one. I suppose because of the contradiction. Clowns are always smiling and laughing and making other people laugh. When I had his eyes done, I thought that he began to have a look of loneliness and sadness that was somewhat intriguing to look at. I felt like he was a person I knew, and am quite attached to the painting.

'Stripy Steps' by Aoife Joyce

‘Stripy Steps’ – The idea of this came to me from looking at a photo. the photo was of a little girl jumping and you could just see her legs , wearing stripy tights. I though it was a great photo, and very eye catching because of the stripes. I decided to paint just one foot, with stripy socks on and when I had the initial outline of the foot done, I decided that to put a hole in the sock with a toe visible would look , in simple terms, quite cool. I like doing paintings that are a bit different and although it is me that paints it I still end up looking at the finished piece thinking about what is going on in the painting and coming up with thoughts about the story behind it.

Contact Aoife:

Web: www.aoifejoyce.com

Email: aoife@aoifejoyce.com

Phone: 086 3742491