Bio

I am a visual artist in the west of Ireland. I hold an MA (2018) in Creative Practice from Atlantic Technological University in Galway. I received an Arts Council Agility Award in 2021 and was the recipient of an individual artist bursary from Galway City council in 2019. My work has been purchased by Galway City Council, The Galway Clinic, and can be viewed in University Hospital Galway Symptomatic Breast Unit. I have completed numerous private commissions. I have had six solo exhibitions in Galway, and have been involved in numerous group shows, including the 191^st RHA annual exhibition in 2021. I have undertaken three years of mentoring by painters with Turps Art School correspondence course, London. I completed the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) Correspondence Course in 2024, which involved online and in-person critique. I  completed a residency at Ballinglen Arts Foundation in 2021, and Tyrone Guthrie Centre in 2023. I am a member of Engage Art Studios, Galway, and work from a home studio.

Artist statement:

Landscape is the context in which my expression occurs. Locality consists of spaces in which we are drawn outside ourselves, and in which the erosion of our lives takes place. Impressions of the landscape capture the essence of a space and time, emotional, thoughtful, and personal, and a basis for a visual vocabulary that is more universal, therefore the painting is an experience rather than a view and has its own internal visual logic so it can function as an artwork. 

My latest work is still based on the area in which I have my studio. This has been providing me with my most recent source material: abandoned farm implements, fenced off areas, old, abandoned buildings and sheds, an old lime kiln. There is a theme of emptiness, it evokes emigration and the sense of something lost. Out of emptiness emerges not just memory, but a living archive with potential for creativity. There is a sense of hiding behind different layers, things in front of other things, but with a nod to modernity in the use of primary colours.

https://www.stephaniemclaughlinart.com

Instagram @stephanie_mclaughlin_art