Ivan Daly

My work of the last number of years has been predominantly paintings of coastal areas, particularly of the County Clare coastline and more recently of Waterford shores.

What started as a project of fascination at a particular section of coast near the village of Doolin has grown to be an expanded examination of this environment. 

While these paintings are representational, I have found that the balance of pictorial elements is something I am interested in. The contrasting aspects of water and land is always recognisable, though my aim is to experiment with the dynamics of shapes and their interaction with one another in the boundaries of the paintings themselves.

 

I use references gathered from walks, photos and sketches on-site. 

 

This painting (Sliver) is from the area of Loop Head in the south Clare coastline and it noted for it's impressive cliffs and formations. I have been recently interested in the way low light cuts across this landscape defining details and creating contrasting areas of warm and cool colours. I wanted to really simplify these areas into blocks of colour - the sea, the line of early light just touching the top of the rocks and the foam of the water, and dominant shadow at the lower half.