Your chance to see Irish artist Elizabeth Cope’s energetic artworks and emotional landscapes …
‘Birds and Other Animals’
What has influenced your artistic journey? My sister Phil was an au pair in Paris and came home with a box of oil paint. It was the smell of the paint that seduced me into becoming a painter! I’m influenced by many artists from the past and present, such as Fischli & Weiss, or Rembrandt, Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, Munch, Alice Neel, Basquait, Marlene Dumas, Chantal Joffe and many more.
‘Tyson’s Chimp’
How and where do you work? I work in many different places, ideally outdoors. I use the studio for painting large works or for cutting up paintings and reassembling them. I prefer lots of light rather than a studio with roof windows. I can paint on the kitchen table, in the car, on the street, in fields or sheds in winter – any make-shift place. I draw on public transport, when people are moving and talking. I don’t paint from photographs, except on rare occasions, as an aide memoir or when someone has died.
‘Helen with Deerskin & Cattle Grazing’
Can you tell us about your latest artwork? “Helen with Deerskin & Cattle Grazing” was the first painting in my so-called menopausal series. I painted it in the garden on a summer’s day with a model and the cattle came up to see what I was doing.
I came across a young Chimpanzee skeleton in the Natural History Museum London, which inspired “Tyson’s Chimp”. Dr Tyson brought the chimp to England, but it died on the way from Africa. It was about 100 years before Darwin. Tyson knew that there was a connection between us and Chimpanzees. I worked on the painting in Vauxhall Street Studios, Kennington. I recall I could see the ”open books” shaped buildings of Vauxhall Bridge through the window.
‘Camille by the fire with Monty in Shankhill’
“Camille by the Fireplace” is about a French girl I met who had a caravan. The interior of the drawing room is very fussy, while her back is reflected in a mirror on easel. I would like visitors to feel joyful seeing my works and I hope they are uplifting.
Need to know: The “Colour Beyond The Pale” exhibition at the Claremorris Gallery pop-up at 3-4 Frederick Street South, Dublin 2 is part of Dublin Gallery Weekend. @elizabeth_cope
SEE MORE: David Eager Maher – Empire
