Art at rhodesD7

Deborah Donnelly's paintings are mostly studies of objects or living things. The subject of her paintings are varied and so far have included cows, cakes, hens, pink houses, landscapes and circus tents to name but a few.

Her brush strokes are heavily laden. She hits the canvas with irregular touches of the brush which she leaves as they are patches of thickly laid-on colour. She always attempts to create a sense of movement, a flickering light, the freshness of an immediate impression. It is important for her to capture the feeling, the fleeting moment, rather than the meticulous, clinical detail.

Deborah Donnelly is a young Dublin artist who has returned home after living in the states for a few years. Deborah's most recent major work, though, is a giant portrait of a cow which stares head on at the viewer, an energetic assemblage of flashing brushstrokes, done in otherworldly shades of green, yellow, blue.

Donnelly's work is all about colour; most of her paintings exhibit strong doses of primary shades, red, yellow, and blue. These imbue otherwise typical landscapes with a refreshing contemporise quality. The work owes debt to French painting of the turn of the 20th Century, and maybe even a little Van Gogh, but also carries a lot of Donnelly's more adventurous style.