Community Spotlight: Anna Byrne
Irish artist, Anna Byrne has “never been away from the sea for more than two weeks in [her] life”, growing up in Dun Laoghaire, living in Howth and being presently based in Clontarf.
When painting, Anna uses an “amalgam of different photographs” but the sea has become so integral to her overall psyche that she feels: “When you think of the sea, you can bring it all up, all the different senses…all of the energy, all the movement”. It is this exact idea of “sea sense” which gives Anna Byrne her real “Star-fish-Power” as an artist.
Anna Byrne began painting professionally in 2016 after a life rife with artistic and academic experience which has gone on to “majorly influence” her art; such as her degrees in classical studies, technology, medicine and science. Design has always factored into her life, studying art, going to the Grafton Academy, working in dress design and then going on to work as an interior designer for the majority of her professional life.
In 2024, Anna Byrne was kept busy exhibiting in the Red Stables, Merrion Square and Stephens Green but this year, with her collection reaching approximately 100 paintings, she is working and preparing to exhibit Life Unfolding for Art Source in the RDS this November.
When speaking to Anna, she emphasised the importance of creating a sense of “narrative” and “movement” through her works, showing “the world through [her] eyes.” and hopefully eliciting emotional responses to those it speaks to, and not worrying about the reception from those it does not.
“Life Unfolding represents a lifetime of ideas…[her] unfolding thoughts follow the major themes of life, movement and time, endeavouring [to evoke the] various elements of air, light, water, earth, nature [and] their importance in the creation and continuation of life”
In relation to “narrative”, I wanted to talk with Anna about some of her early work. The paintings New Life and Hope really caught my attention.
These 5 x 7cm works have such a surreal quality to them. The palette knife and white paint creates these shimmering ripples so true to gazing down at the water. While the figures feel distanced and lost in this deep history, resurfacing only to be caught for a brief moment. “The folding of the drapery and their elongated forms come from [Anna’s experience] in dress design”.
I find that in New Life the seaweed-like yellow drapery of the mother and the navy of the baby make them feel entangled with the sea, as if they could disappear in a sweep, they feel half there, half not. New Life was one of her first paintings and was completed directly after a trip to Donegal, influencing the colours, “there was something about the feeling of the landscape and the light that just appealed to me” notes Anna.
Byrne's love of “blues, greens and yellows” are evident in both pieces, but in Hope, the darker hues translate a deeper sea, deeper into history.
The white hollow faces of both paintings provoke this sense of a lost narrative to me and when I asked Byrne about this choice, she expressed "I like the idea of creating the shape of a figure out of nothing …you could add the face if you wanted to …but I prefer not to.”
Since these earlier paintings, Anna has loved to expand her canvas size, and focus more on the sense of life and movement that landscapes hold, without any people. She calls them quite lonely and cites her work often comes from darker places but that she makes them light. She feels that “we can often do with life without the people” and that landscapes host narratives of their own. I wanted to take a look at the recent paintings After Sunset and Advancing to get a better insight into her artistic development.
When discussing After Sunset (50 x 50cm) Bryne began “I just love light colours…but I really love darkness to light…It moves because of how they relate to each other”.
These rich colours are a result of experimentation but come from a very controlled palette of eight paints which Anna has grown to trust over time. The layering is integral to the piece and Anna prefers acrylics to oil so that she can quickly add new layers without waiting for them to dry, affecting her inspiration. I feel that the yellow sunset which sits behind the light blues, navy and orange paint strokes like rays of lights is an apt example of the great effects of this quick layering process.
Anna also felt that she could “easily get stuck in one colour.” She used to be known as the “green girl” but is now experimenting more, using a wider range and exploring with reds and oranges also, which she never felt comfortable with before but I find them to work really effectively in works like Advancing.
The contrast and deep hues reflects her more abstract nature. It is evident that there are so many different ways in which she can bring forth her landscapes.
Written by Ben Lynch (@Ben_lynch__)
Edited by Alex Kelleher (@alex_kelleher_)
