You are what you wear, VI

About Brigitte Mc Govern

Brigitte Mc Govern was born in Hamburg. She studied graphic design at the College of Art and Design in Hamburg, graduating with a first class honours degree in 1967. She worked within the field of advertising in Munich from

1967 - 1979.

She has been living and working in Ireland since 1979. Since 1992 she has been pursuing an interest in counselling and psychotherapy. She obtained a certificate in counselling from the Creative Counselling Centre in Dublin in 1993 and a certificate in art therapy from the Crawford College of Art and Design in 1994.

She has been teaching art to people with special needs from 1995 - 2010 in two day centres in Dublin, Tus Nua, Ballymun and Tara House, North strand Road.

In 2003 she was awarded th Douglas Hyde gold medal at the Oireachtais Exhibition for her painting: " I recognise him by the slope of his shoulder. "

In 2003 she exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition.

In 2008 she was invited to participate in residency at the Cill Rialaig Project,

Co. Kerry.

Works held in private collections in Ireland, England, Germany, Spain and

New Zealand.

Artist Statement

I work in oils in a photo-realistic style, using photographs as references.

I try to copy nature as faithfully as possible, when I translate the motif into paint.

Nevertheless the paintings acquire additional qualities, which I am aiming to achieve, that sets them apart from the photographic original.

A painting has more reality than a photograph, because it is visibly hand-painted,

because it has been tangibly and materially produced.

My subject matter can change in keeping with my own interest. For a while now I have been painting landscapes facouring seascapes, plants and stones of the foreshore, patterns the water makes.

Growing up in Hamburg the power, beauty,colours and mood of the sea always held a special fascination for me. I find the sea a particularly powerful life force.

I record the landscape as I see it and try to capture the mood of the day.

I often hone in on details of the subject matter and invite the observer to complete the scene.

In my abstract work I am experimenting with colours, forms and textures.

My process is done in several stages with paint applied in many layers, scraped off, revealing the underlying layers and painted over again. Sometimes with diluted oil paints.

The paintings are a visual reflection of my internal life, representing inner and outer landscapes.

My work concerns itself with the visible and the invisible.

Brigitte Mc Govern - Artist

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Thursday 6 September 2012

You are what you wear, VI

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