'Why don't you paint horizons?' poet Derek Mahon (1941-2020) asked me in 2014 in response to my early abstract paintings. A collaboration began where a poem and text about horizons were written (by Derek and published as part of the collections 'Olympia and The Internet' 2017 and 'Against The Clock' 2018 with The Gallery Press). I started a series of paintings: Horizons 2014-24 are non-horizons, based on the ephemeral idea of non-existent planes. Channelling painting by numbers and colouring books, they were created using digitally modified found images, traced and layered multiple times onto paper, creating a web of abstract shapes. The originals become hidden in a forest of post-representational visual noise, and are painted using a colour map theorem, ensuring that no two adjacent colours are the same. This systematic approach rendered foreground and background indistinguishable, creating a non-hierarchical colour distribution. "Haunted by the history and context of painting, I establish rules beforehand to organise what colours will be used, where and how, to undermine self-expression. I am like a one-eyed ambient robot crawling across the surface of the painting, eradicating depth perception and diminishing aesthetic choices to chance encounters.” (Sarah Iremonger 2024)
Found images used to create this work include drawings based on screensavers, nature camouflages, photographs of Cork Harbour, Skellig Michael, Star Wars and the works of painters James Arthur O'Connor 1792-1841, George Barret 1728-1774 and Piet Mondrian 1872-1944.
A 2023 development into digital media sees drawings from Horizons transformed into digital 3-D landscapes with the help of Net Artist Daniel Murray, exploring ideas of situationlessness, presented in the paper The Lady of the Lake is Hiding in the Expanded Field at the ‘2nd Symposium on Digital Art in Ireland’, UCC, June 2024.
This work includes a public participation project, Build Your Own Horizon/BYOH developed for Bealtaine Festival and Uillinn, West Cork Arts Centre, 2022, exhibited at 'Fragments in Constellation' with Re:Group for the Skibbereen Arts Festival, 2022; exhibited at 'Coalescence' The Lavit Gallery Cork, 2024 and ‘Press Play’ Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin, 2019; and was funded through a Cork County Council, Arts Grants Scheme Award, 2015.
Also see texts Cantos-Open Horizons, 2024
Horizons work at 'Coalescence' exhibition, The Lavit Gallery, Cork, Ireland, June-July 2024; (from left) Submerged Horizon with Skellig Michael, Star Wars and water camouflage, 2017; Subsumed Horizon with Skellig Michael, screensavers and camouflage images, 2022; Lost Horizon after ‘Moon Light Scene' 'In the Dargle Country' 'On Coming Storm' and 'Figure in a Landscape with Waterfall' by J. A. O’Connor 1832, 2019; Beyond the Horizon after 'A Thunderstorm' by J.A. O'Connor 1832, woodland camouflage and plastic bottle vectors, 2018.
Horizons work at 'Coalescence' exhibition, The Lavit Gallery, Cork, Ireland, June-July 2024; (from left) Submerged Horizon with Skellig Michael, Star Wars and water camouflage, 2017; Subsumed Horizon with Skellig Michael, screensavers and camouflage images, 2022; Lost Horizon after ‘Moon Light Scene' 'In the Dargle Country' 'On Coming Storm' and 'Figure in a Landscape with Waterfall' by J. A. O’Connor 1832, 2019; Beyond the Horizon after 'A Thunderstorm' by J.A. O'Connor 1832, woodland camouflage and plastic bottle vectors, 2018.
Horizons work at 'Coalescence' exhibition, The Lavit Gallery, Cork, Ireland, June-July 2024; (left) Entangled Horizon 3, ink pen on paper, 52 x 70 cm; (right) Entangled Horizon, watercolour on paper, 50 x 69 cm, 2024, after 'View of Powerscourt Waterfall' by G. Barret, 1760.
Horizons work at 'Coalescence' exhibition, The Lavit Gallery, Cork, Ireland, June-July 2024; (left) Entangled Horizon 3, ink pen on paper, 52 x 70 cm; (right) Entangled Horizon, watercolour on paper, 50 x 69 cm, 2024, after 'View of Powerscourt Waterfall' by G. Barret, 1760.
The original painting by George Barret’s 18th-century paintings of the 'View of Powerscourt Waterfall' 1760 (he painted several versions - one is in the National Gallery of Ireland and another is in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) used as source material to create drawings and paintings and develop digital 3-dimensional virtual landscapes.
Exploring ideas about disrupted representation, this drawing uses a combination of digital and analogue procedures. The first stage was to make several digital versions of ‘View of Powerscourt Waterfall’ by G. Barret, 1760, by changing the settings for detail and edges in Photoshop. Printing the images as line drawings and projecting them onto paper, tracing and turning them back to front and upside down to create a network of lines.
Exploring ideas about disrupted representation, this painting uses a combination of digital and analogue procedures. The first stage was to make several digital versions of ‘View of Powerscourt Waterfall’ by G. Barret, 1760, by changing the settings for detail and edges in Photoshop. Printing and tracing the images as line drawings and projecting them onto paper, turning them back to front and upside down to create a framework to hold the colours. Then painting one colour at a time ambiently across the entire surface so that the same colour never touches following the Colour Map Theorem.
Exploring ideas about disrupted representation, this drawing uses a combination of digital and analogue procedures. The first stage was to make several digital versions of ‘View of Powerscourt Waterfall’ by G. Barret, 1760, by changing the settings for detail and edges in Photoshop. Printing the images as line drawings and projecting them onto paper, tracing and turning them back to front and upside down to create a network of lines.
Exploring ideas about disrupted representation, this drawing uses a combination of digital and analogue procedures. The first stage was to make several digital versions of ‘View of Powerscourt Waterfall’ by G. Barret, 1760, by changing the settings for detail and edges in Photoshop. Printing the images as line drawings and projecting them onto paper, tracing and turning them back to front and upside down to create a network of lines, and then tracing over the lines with an ink pen. It has been cropped and blurred so that Blender could transform it into a 3-D landscape.
Exploring ideas about disrupted representation, this drawing uses a combination of digital and analogue procedures. The first stage was to make several digital versions of ‘View of Powerscourt Waterfall’ by G. Barret, 1760, by changing the settings for detail and edges in Photoshop. Printing the images as line drawings and projecting them onto paper, tracing and turning them back to front and upside down to create a network of lines.
Entangled Horizon 2 drawing of digitised images of ‘View of Powerscourt Waterfall’ by G. Barret, 1760, created by changing the detail and contour parameters of the source image, projecting the images onto paper, tracing them and then drawing over the traced images with ink, rendered as a virtual digital 3-dimensional landscape, with the drawing overlayed and developed in Blender.
Detail of Entangled Horizon 2 drawing of digitised images of ‘View of Powerscourt Waterfall’ by G. Barret, 1760, created by changing the detail and contour parameters of the source image, projecting the images onto paper, tracing them and then drawing over the traced images with ink, rendered as a virtual digital 3-dimensional landscape, with the drawing overlayed and developed in Blender.
Entangled Horizon 2 drawing of digitised images of ‘View of Powerscourt Waterfall’ by G. Barret, 1760, created by changing the detail and contour parameters of the source image, projecting the images onto paper, tracing them and then drawing over the traced images with ink, rendered as a virtual digital 3-dimensional landscape, with the drawing overlayed and developed in Blender.
Detail of Entangled Horizon 2 drawing of digitised images of ‘View of Powerscourt Waterfall’ by G. Barret, 1760, created by changing the detail and contour parameters of the source image, projecting the images onto paper, tracing them and then drawing over the traced images with ink, rendered as a virtual digital 3-dimensional landscape, with the drawing overlayed and developed in Blender.
Entangled Horizon 2 drawing of digitised images of ‘View of Powerscourt Waterfall’ by G. Barret, 1760, created by changing the detail and contour parameters of the source image, projecting the images onto paper, tracing them and then drawing over the traced images with ink, rendered as a virtual digital 3-dimensional landscape, with the drawing overlayed and developed in Blender.
Detail of Entangled Horizon 2 drawing of digitised images of ‘View of Powerscourt Waterfall’ by G. Barret, 1760, created by changing the detail and contour parameters of the source image, projecting the images onto paper, tracing them and then drawing over the traced images with ink, rendered as a virtual digital 3-dimensional landscape, with the drawing overlayed and developed in Blender.
Detail of Entangled Horizon 2 drawing of digitised images of ‘View of Powerscourt Waterfall’ by G. Barret, 1760, created by changing the detail and contour parameters of the source image, projecting the images onto paper, tracing them and then drawing over the traced images with ink, rendered as a virtual digital 3-dimensional landscape, with the drawing overlayed and developed in Blender.
Detail of Entangled Horizon 2 drawing of digitised images of ‘View of Powerscourt Waterfall’ by G. Barret, 1760, created by changing the detail and contour parameters of the source image, projecting the images onto paper, tracing them and then drawing over the traced images with ink, rendered as a virtual digital 3-dimensional landscape, with the drawing overlayed and developed in Blender.
Uncut template for Build Your Own Horizon BYOH/Uillinn, a site-specific public participation project, created for the 'Bealtaine Artist in Residence' program at Uillinn, West Cork Arts Centre, in association with Cork County Council, May 2022.
Exhibited as part of the Skibbereen Arts Festival, July 2022
Uncut template for Build Your Own Horizon BYOH/Uillinn, a site-specific public participation project, created for the 'Bealtaine Artist in Residence' program at Uillinn, West Cork Arts Centre, in association with Cork County Council, May 2022.
Exhibited as part of the Skibbereen Arts Festival, July 2022
Cut-out prototype for Build Your Own Horizon/Uillinn, a site-specific public participation project, created for the 'Bealtaine Artist in Residence' program at Uillinn, West Cork Arts Centre, in association with Cork County Council, May 2022.
Exhibited as part of the Skibbereen Arts Festival, July 2022
This drawing explores ideas about disrupted representation, using a combination of digital and analogue procedures to create the image. Using nature camouflages as source material, it was created by projecting the images onto paper and tracing them.
This drawing explores ideas about disrupted representation, using a combination of digital and analogue procedures to create the image. The first stage was to digitise the original painting by J.A. O'Connor and make several versions by changing the settings for detail and edges in Photoshop. Printing the images as line drawings, which were projected onto paper and traced along with drawings from digital screensavers.
Drawing of images of Cork Harbour and Mondrian Compositions. This drawing explores ideas about disrupted representation, using a combination of digital and analogue procedures to create the image. Drawing images of Cork Harbour from photographs and Mondrian painting compositions, created by projecting and tracing the images onto paper.
Drawing of collaged digital images of Skellig Michael and screensavers. This drawing explores ideas about disrupted representation, using a combination of digital and analogue procedures to create the image. The first stage was to make several versions by changing the settings for detail and edges in Photoshop of a found image of Skellig Michael. Printing the images as line drawings, projecting and tracing them onto paper.
Drawing of digital images of J.A. O'Connor, woodland camouflage and plastic bottles, leaf and nuclear explosion vectors. This drawing explores ideas about disrupted representation, using a combination of digital and analogue procedures to create the image. The first stage was to make several versions of the original painting by J.A. O'Connor by changing the settings for detail and edges in Photoshop. Printing the images as line drawings and projecting and tracing them onto paper, along with drawings of woodland camouflage, plastic bottles, leaf and nuclear explosion vectors.
Painting of digital images after J. A. O'Connor, painted in the style of camouflage. Exploring ideas about disrupted representation, using a combination of digital and analogue procedures. The first stage was to make digital versions of the original paintings ‘Moon Light Scene' 'In the Dargle Country' 'On Coming Storm' and 'Figure in a Landscape with Waterfall' by J. A. O’Connor, 1832, to create a framework to hold the colours, then painting one colour at a time ambiently across the entire surface so that the same colour never touched, each shape painted as a separate unit following the Colour Map Theorem.
Painting of digital images of Skellig Michael, screensavers and camouflage, painted in the style of camouflage. Exploring ideas about disrupted representation, using a combination of digital and analogue procedures. The first stage was to digitise a found image of Skellig Michael by changing the settings for detail and edges in Photoshop. Printing and tracing the image as a line drawing, along with images of screensavers, projected onto paper and traced to create a framework to hold the colours, then painting one colour at a time ambiently across the entire surface so that the same colour never touched, each shape painted as a separate unit following the Colour Map Theorem.
Painting of digital images after J.A. O'Connor and screensavers, painted in the style of camouflage. Exploring ideas about disrupted representation, using a combination of digital and analogue procedures. The first stage was to digitise the original painting 'In the Dargle Country' by J.A. O'Connor, 1829, by changing the settings for detail and edges in Photoshop. Printing and tracing the image as a line drawing along with images of screensavers, projected onto paper and traced to create a framework to hold the colours, then painting one colour at a time ambiently across the entire surface so that the same colour never touched, each shape painted as a separate unit following the Colour Map Theorem.
Painting of digital images after J.A. O'Connor, woodland camouflage and plastic bottle vectors painted in the style of camouflage. This painting explores ideas about disrupted representation, using a combination of digital and analogue procedures to create. The first stage was to digitise the original painting 'A Thunderstorm' by J.A. O'Connor, 1832, by changing the settings for detail and edges in Photoshop. Printing and tracing the image as a line drawing along with images of woodland camouflage and plastic bottle vectors, projected onto paper and traced to create a framework to hold the colours, then painting one colour at a time ambiently across the entire surface so that the same colour never touched, each shape painted as a separate unit following the Colour Map Theorem.
Exhibited as part of 'Press Play' Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin, 2019
Painting of digital images of Cork Harbour from photographs and Mondrian compositions painted in the style of camouflage. This painting explores ideas about disrupted representation, using a combination of digital and analogue procedures. The first stage was to trace the photographs of Cork Harbour along with images of Mondrian compositions, projected onto paper and traced multiple times to create a framework to hold the colours, then it was painted one colour at a time ambiently across the entire surface so that the same colour never touched, each shape was painted as a separate unit following the Colour Map Theorem.
Exhibited as part of 'Press Play' Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin, 2019
Painting of digital images of Skellig Michael, Star Wars and water camouflages painted in the style of camouflage. This painting explores ideas about disrupted representation, using a combination of digital and analogue procedures. The first stage was to digitise the found image of Skellig Michael by changing the settings for detail and edges in Photoshop. Printing and tracing the image as a line drawing along with images from Star Wars and water camouflages, projected onto paper and traced to create a framework to hold the colours, then it was painted one colour at a time ambiently across the entire surface so that the same colour never touched, each shape was painted as a separate unit following the Colour Map Theorem.
Exhibited as part of 'Salon' 2018 and 'Press Play' Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin, 2019
Studies for woodland, pink, sea and desert camouflage for Skellig Michael, created by changing the detail and contour parameters of the found image, tracing and duplicating the projected image onto paper.
Blurred studies for woodland, pink, sea and desert camouflage for Skellig Michael, created by changing the detail and contour parameters of the found image, tracing and duplicating the projected image onto paper.
Blurred and non-blurred studies of colour separation camouflage for Skellig Michael fragmented and duplicated into images of floating photo screensavers, created by changing the detail and contour parameters of the images and tracing the projected images onto paper.
Colour separation images, cyan, yellow, black and magenta of Skellig Michael have been superimposed into fragmented and duplicated images of floating photo screensavers, created by changing the detail and contour parameters of the images and tracing the projected images onto paper.
Multiple images of colour separation floating photo screensavers superimposed onto images of Skellig Michael, created by changing the detail and contour parameters of the images and tracing the projected images onto paper.
Images of floating photo screensavers superimposed onto a blurred colour separation image of Skellig Michael painted as blurred colour separations, created by changing the detail and contour parameters of the image and tracing the projected images onto paper.
Image of colour separation floating photo screensavers superimposed onto a fragmented and duplicated image of Skellig Michael painted as colour separations, created by changing the detail and contour parameters of the image and tracing the projected images onto paper.
Posterised found photograph of Skellig Michael, a drawing based on this image has been used for the design of the Skellig camouflage, part of the research material, created by changing the detail and contour parameters of the image.