Abstract paintings that explore our connection with nature and the emotional sensory experiences of the landscape.
Leah Beggs is a graduate of IADT, Dun Laoighaire and is currently based in Connemara, Co. Galway, where she is a founding member of uachtarARTS, a community arts group in Oughterard.
Her large abstract paintings, filled with wide, gestural brush marks, are multi-layered, being as much about the medium of paint and the process of painting, as well as an interpretation of the landscape.
Ideas around climactic effects on the landscape are one facet to her paintings, while other more abstract concepts explore an emotive response to the landscape by reminsicing or suggesting a "sense" of place, an atmosphere or a feeling, rather than depicting a particular scene.
New works by Beggs open on February 8th at the Solomon Gallery, Dublin.
How my artistic journey began:
As a child i was always drawing or making things. Being creative is in my blood. There is a lot of strong creative women on both sides of my family. When I finished school, I signed up for a portfolio preparation course on the proviso that if I didnt like the year creating and making, I would have a rethink of my career path. Safe to say, I've never looked back.
The title for my current show came from...
The title of my current show is "Everything Smells Different When It Rains". There is a word for the smell of rain: petrichor. You know it, that instance when rainwater hits and produces an earthy smell. It is caused by the rainwater, mixing with certain compounds like ozone, geosmin, and plant oils. Everything smells different after a dousing of water. The phrase resonatated with me and I thought about using it as a title as a kind of poetic reflection of the multisensory experience of this phenomenon and the feeling it imbues.
What I want my audience to feel:
To contemplate our connection with nature, to engage with he emotional and sensory experiences of the landscape around us and as a consequence provoke ideas and emotions that come and go.
Artists who have influenced me:
Willem de Kooning, Richard Diebenkorn, William Crozier, Tony O'Malley, Callum Innes, Howard Hodgkin to name but a few.
I have a collection of:
Elephants. I love them as a creature and I started collecting elephant ornaments in my early 20s. People still buy them for me if they see them on their travels.
An artists whose work I would collect if I could:
Richard Diebenkorn or Patrick Heron.
