A multidisciplinary artist based in Limerick, Sian Costello’s striking portraits are defined by their pose and lighting …
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know that art, making it and looking at it, made me happy. Painting always appealed to me, and I was very lucky that my family and school teachers encouraged me to pursue that instinct. My mother had a few art books that I would read cover to cover, and even from prints those old master paintings cast a spell. I first visited the National Gallery in Dublin when I was 17 years-old and I can remember feeling such joy seeing those works in the flesh. I first began to really improve my drawing and painting skills at the kitchen table, copying the work of old masters from library books. I’ve always enjoyed copying from art history, and it’s something I return to constantly in my current studio practice whenever I feel my skills need a refresh. I continued to learn about painting and about how to be an artist at Limerick School of Art and Design. Going to college opened me up to contemporary practices and taught me how to think like a contemporary artist.
Paintings of humans have always had a certain fascination for me and for so many – the idea that you can pin down a moment in time with another human being onto a canvas is magic. Early on, I really loved looking at Velasquez, Rubens and other court painters, maybe I was reeled in by the fine clothing and jewellery. Later when I started using oil paint, I became obsessed with Lucian Freud and the capabilities of oil to depict living flesh. Portraiture is an inexhaustible subject matter. Even when I paint exclusively from my own face, I enjoy how the circumstances of the pose, lighting and how the paint falls that day intertwine to make new people in each painting.
I have a studio in Limerick City, supported by Limerick Arts Office, where I have worked for the past three years. I use the studio for painting, but also as a space to take reference photos and experiment with different devices to capture images. I don’t keep a sketchbook so much as I write in my notebook, where I figure out the image on the canvas. Although I mostly use myself as a model, I don’t describe my paintings as self-portraits. The modelling process creates a closeness and distance to the image in a way that completely detaches my sense of self from my own image. For a long time, I was specifically exploring the female nude as she appears throughout art history, but lately I’ve been more interested in the construction of figuration and the artifice of the studio.
My latest exhibition at Taylor 2 Gallery in Dublin called “It’s all about you” is a collection of new and older works that span two years. The older work in the show comes from a period in which I referenced French Rococo artists Fragonard and Boucher’s paintings of women in ornate bedrooms, captured in a whimsical yet voyeuristic manner. By re-enacting their poses for my camera and collaging my body over theirs, I wanted to present a new perspective on the act of modelling and the labour involved in bringing these artworks to life. The newer works in the show are inspired by a series of preparatory photos I took of myself getting ready to cast my head for another project. The bin bag outfit and stark studio background reflect my current interest in the contrived marriage between the desire for likeness and the desperation to invent that takes place in all figurative painting. I like to cut through the seriousness of an exhibition with titles taken from song lyrics, and “It’s all about you” felt like a good fit for a show full of images of myself.
It’s really thrilling for me when things come together in a painting. Sometimes, it happens very early on and other times you feel like you’ll never reach what you’re trying to get at. Either way, there’s something magical about that moment when the paint does exactly what you want it to do. The more you paint, the easier it is to get there and the better that feeling gets.
Need to know: “It’s All About You” by Sian Costello, curated by Eamonn Maxwell, runs until August 15 in Taylor Two, Taylor Galleries, Dublin 2. This year, Sian won the K+M Evans Painting Prize at the RHA Annual and was shortlisted for the Hennessy Craig Award. She has just been awarded a residency with the National Museum through the Museum Plinth Project.
