My paintings are my response to how I experience the landscape. Wind, rain and shifting light, interacting with the physical elements of the landscape, suggest the interconnectedness of nature, which is also self-inclusive. This is what I seek to express in my work.
I lived in the Burren near the shoreline of Bishopsquarter for 12 years and this area continues to be an inspiration and recurring theme in my paintings.
From 2014 to 2018 I lived in the mountainous Axarquia area of Malaga province where I painted this extraordinary and vibrant landscape, returning to Clare in 2018 where I live and work as a full time artist in East Clare.
I paint mainly from memory, conscious and unconscious, often in an instinctive way using brushes and palette knives. My recent work explores the spectrum of colour which is inherent in light. Though usually invisible, in the moist air of the Atlantic coastline it may be perceived in cloud formations or on a distant horizon and fleetingly on the landscape adjacent to the Clare and Connemara coastlines when the air is refracted by a random angle of light.
Denise M. Ryan
Denise M Ryan studied at the Limerick College of Art and had her first solo exhibition in the Thomond Gallery, Limerick, in 1973. She has exhibited regularly since then, including the RHA, and her work is represented in public collections such as the HSE, University of Limerick, PTSB and Clare County Council and in private collections in Ireland, the UK, France, the US and Saudi Arabia.
Recent exhibitions include:
2005 – Solo exhibition, Waterman Lodge Hotel, Killaloe
2006 – ‘An Boireann’ invited exhibition, Galerie Pomie, Dordogne, France
2 person exhibition, Russell Gallery, New Quay, Co Clare
Exhibition, 75 Gallery, Limerick
2008 – Solo exhibition, Hunt Museum, Limerick
2009 – 2 person exhibition, Russell Gallery, New Quay, Co Clare
2011 – 3 person exhibition, Frank Lewis Gallery, Killarney
2016 — 2 person exhibition, La Galeria, Periana Malaga.
2017 — Museo Ethnografico Riogordo, Malaga – 5 Artists.
2015 – Present — Exhibiting at The Whitethorn Gallery, Clifden.