pauline keaney

about

pauline keaney

"Individual, colourful, sensitive, humorous, sensual, spontaneous and adventurous; Pauline's art is an extension of her personality and the same description applies to both. Throughout her career as a printmaker and painter Pauline has responded to her environment and, since moving permanently to Hydra nine years ago, she has naturally turned to her surroundings for source material and inspiration.

Fruit and vegetables in the market, olive trees, flowers, the rugged landscape and the rocks which tower above Hydra town where she has her studio and plummet into the sea around the island all feature in her work. But these are touchstones. Her paintings are responses to these subjects rather than representations of them. The prosaic and the dramatic serve as vehicles for her primary interest in colour and through colour form.

The works are both sensitive and exuberant and it is this balance between strength and subtlety which distinguishes her paintings, be they large works in oil or small watercolours. Perhaps because of her background as a printmaker, Pauline has developed the use of groups of canvasses which together function as one piece. These groups create windows on the artist's sensibility and responses to the things that surround her.

Many of her works tend towards abstraction, with only a few lines acting as references to the subject matter which first inspired her. One can stand back and see fruit, trees or rocks, but also find a feast of confident marks and colours which function independently of the source material.. All her work is a celebration of her life on the island which she has come to call home."

Tessa Green, 2001

"When I first sailed into the harbour of Hydra I totally fell in love with the place. I found it beautiful, captivating, awe inspiring but as a painter ultimately intimidating. Where to start?...

Originally, my daily trips to the market place provided me with my inspiration. The explosive, vibrant displays assaulted my senses and the fruit and vegetables themselves became vehicles for my need to explore colour and form. I was a long time obsessed with this subject matter..

Eventually, as I walked and sailed round the island I began to look at,, and more importantly to see, the landscape as a painter. I realised that the landscape of Hydra is essentially about rock and, indeed, Hydra itself is a huge rock. And so I paint rock and reflected rock. In rock I have found all the elements that can obsess an artist - Colour, Form, Light, Texture. In my rock paintings I have tried to use a painterly language to interpret all of these things. But ultimately it's paint on canvas and the surface of the canvas is everything. I hope my paintings are beautiful surfaces."

Pauline Keaney, 2005

curriculum vitae

STUDIES

1981 - 1983 Slade School of Fine Art, University College London,

Post Graduate Degree in Printmaking

1977 - 1981 Reading University, Reading, Berkshire, England,

BA Hons Fine Art

1976 - 1977 Berkshire College of Art, Reading, Berkshire, England,

Art Foundation Course

TEACHING POSTS

2001 - 2002 The Boston Museum of Fine Art School, Boston, Mass. USA,

Artist in Residence

1990 - 1993 Casterton School, Kirby Longsdale, Cumbria, England,

Head of Department of Printmaking

1983 - 1986 Eton College, Eton, Berkshire, England,

Teacher of Printmaking and Painting

EXHIBITIONS

2007 Cornerstone Gallery, Liverpool (one woman show)

2006 Historical Archives Museum of Hydra, Greece (one woman show)

This show was the flagship art happening of the 2006 annual Miaouleia celebrations on Hydra.

An enormous honour for any artist, let alone a woman and non Hydra native.

2003 Lagoudera Yacht Club, Hydra, Greece (one woman show)

2002 The Boston Museum of Fine Art School, Boston, Mass. USA

2001 Melina Mercouri Gallery, Hydra, Greece (one woman show)

1999 Hanover Gallery, Liverpool, England (one woman show)

1998 Melina Mercouri Gallery, Hydra, Greece (one woman show)

1997 Oddfellow's Gallery, Kendal, Cumbria, England (one woman show)

1996 Dale End Galleries, Long Sleddale, Cumbria, England (one woman show)

1995 Miranda Gallery, Hydra, Greece (one woman show)

1990 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London, England

1988 Lakes' Artists, Grasmere, Cumbria, England

1986 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London, England

1983 - 1984 'Germination 3', Trilateral Exhibition shown in London, Paris, Edinburgh and Kassel

1983 Stowell's Trophy Exhibition, Royal Academy, London, England

1982 Slade Folio Exhibition, Minsky's Gallery, London, England

1982 Print Workshop Exhibition, Reading University, Reading, Berkshire, England

1981 Degree Show, Reading University, Reading, Berkshire, England

1981 Stowell's Trophy Exhibition, Royal Academy, London, England

1979 Young Contemporaries Exhibition, ICA, London, England