Tell me about yourself. Your Grandfather has been a great inspiration for you. How has his work influenced your own?

My grandfather was a designer who worked for a domestic company called Goblin, which had one of its companies based in Belfast as far as I am aware. He designed new concepts for domestic appliances such as; kettles, as well as other things. These in turn would be created by the manufacturer and sold through out retailers. Unfortunately, his designs would be considered that of the companies so he gained no credit. Quite disheartening having designed something and a company name gets their name on it rather than the designer but that’s the job I suppose. But I imagine it would be a cool feeling to walk into a store and see your design on the shelves for sale with complete anonymity knowing that this is my design and I did that.

He was a carpenter also being a wizard with wood. He had an eye for detail and construction and knew all about electronics. His paintings skills and drawing skills were incredible. I would call by everyday after school most of the time, but this was in his elderly years where he became frailer. But he showed me the first techniques of handling a pencil and how to look at things. I remember drawing a Tyrannosaurus rex with him on lined paper.

He had a great eye when it came to sketching and I imitated a lot of his drawings and paintings growing up redrawing some of his drawings and trying to repaint his paintings. If it was a signature, I suppose you could say it was like practising how to forge a signature but I was trying to learn his brush strokes. He had very confident and articulate drawing skills which can be seen in each pencil marking. He was extremely humble and not a boastful man. Just gentle and kind.

How have your surroundings influenced your artwork? Where do you find your inspiration?

Influences and surroundings have changed over the years. These things always have a reflection on what you paint. For me, I have always looked at my kids as my biggest source of inspiration and use these guys a lot in my work as reference material. That’s the great thing about having kids. You have handy models. They have just got to an age now that they ask for money for references and posing. They blackmail me. Criminals.

I love my water sports; kitesurfing and surfing. So, being able to get in the water is important to me. I have to say I love my local beach which is Tyrella located in Co. Down where we have a wonderful view of the Mourne Mountains. It’s something that most people take for granted but it is a beautiful spot, especially in good forecast and all the elements line up for a perfect day.

I would usually refer to Tyrella beach in a lot of my paintings and woodcuts, with the Mourne Mountains showing in the background.

When finding potential subjects to paint or draw, what kind of characteristics do you look for? In your opinion, what makes an interesting face to capture?

Mmmmm. Well, I did do a number of still life paintings based on the Covid pandemic (Whatever that was all about) and did have an exhibition. It was a collection of still life paintings based on items that would never be seemed significant being so common. They would never have had an important status, at least before Covid took place. Remember the global demand for people rushing for toilet rolls. Mad. Who would have thought that something like this would leave shelves empty.

So Covid was interesting, and I sort of made a visual diary about household items in the form of paintings. It was good to take a break from portraits and make life studies in the form of oil paintings.

In regards of painting a portrait or face, I have to say I love painting side profiles. I don’t know why. I just do. If I have an idea/theme it usually revolves around something on a personal scale and my surroundings. My last painting was based on my younger child and his dog. He never liked dogs and feared them. We got a border collie and now he can’t be separated from it. He has started enjoying the sea more at Tyrella beach; which I previously mentioned. He was painted in a sailor’s mac to emphasise the love of the location and connection with his dog. Possibly a touch of a self portrait as it is a representation of me also.

You use an array of mediums throughout your portfolio. How does each medium help you achieve the mood/feel of the piece? Would you say you’re quite an experimental individual?

Without a doubt the pencil is the king of mediums. A piece of paper and a pencil. That’s all you need. I love drawing and have a personal preference of brand and paper when it comes to working in this medium. I love how I can escape the tightness of my style when I am painting. When you are drawing you are constantly trying to make imaginary reference points from other parts of the face. It’s actually quite mathematical where you are using geometry and trying to pinpoint marks or key points for line and mark making.

I now size my own surface, meaning I prepare my linen using rabbit skin glue and prime it myself. I stretch the canvas to a size of my liking and prefer linen over canvas. I like a fine grain. With my paintings, I use oil and concentrate on composition and break everything down into simplistic basic shapes to start with. From that basic shape which has formed the composition, I then work into the painting itself making sure everything is in proportion. I like to make my paintings visually interesting with lots of contrast, tone and colour so a lot of thought goes into that. I like my paintings to be enjoyed by all viewers and not looked upon with a snobbish eye where you require a certain intelligence to enjoy the painting where it pretends to have more significance than it actually has. I just enjoy painting, drawing, printmaking. If you like it, then you like it. If you don’t, then you don’t.

I love printmaking also, whereas before, I never really did or found it interesting. When the recession kicked in around 2005-07 or whenever, sales dropped so I thought producing prints would be a good way to adapt to selling artwork. Cheaper as well at producing multiples. With woodcuts you get this completely different and unique style. You can’t replicate this through painting and drawing. I love it.

Over the next year I will be starting to work in egg tempera. I have had this in mind for years and purchased all the pigments. I just never got round to it. This year I will.

In 2017, you were commissioned by an Australian band; Caligulas Horse, to produce artwork for an album cover. Describe your process for creating this work. Why was this an exciting project for you? Were there any challenging aspects?

Its always fun when you get a commission like this. It makes the work so much more interesting. There are commissions that come through and I would turn them away a lot, but you just know and can tell when you get someone with a proper idea of what they want. They are direct. They have a certain tone in the email which ticks all the boxes, and you know they are going to be good to work with. Well, this was one of them.

They had an album due for release and had a all sorts of lyrics from different songs. We talked them through and came up with ideas of how to involve them in the cover. Ideas were emailed back and forward with drawings etc before an oil painting was started.

They were a great bunch of lads and doing great. They did tours of Europe and America.

What does a typical day look like for you in the studio?

A coffee in the mornings and beers/wine at night! Well, I do all my own framing, website design work, advertising and delivery of goods so I suppose that includes admin as well. Everything starts and ends with me. It just depends on which takes priority. If I have a painting deadline; it’s straight into that. Currently, I’m doing a book illustration, so I won’t start any projects until this one is sorted. This is to be completed in woodcuts. I’m doing something every day in regards of a studio basis, so being self-disciplined is important.

What has been your biggest achievement so far as an artist?

I always said if I get into the BP Portrait Awards, I can safely consider myself as an artist. So far, I’ve only been shortlisted but have only applied once I suppose. Personally I don’t really like to consider myself an artist which sounds like a contradiction perhaps or people reading this thinking that doesn’t make sense. Maybe I just hate the label.

When someone asks me, “what do I do for a living?”. I usually reply,” I draw pictures”. Within a second their face goes weird and don’t know how to react. I always find this funny, so do it on purpose to see their reaction, sort of a personal quiet joke that only I get. But even if you reply and say, “Yeah, I am an Artist”. You get that stereotypical response where they pretty much look the same as what I previously said. There is a lot of pretentious labelling that floats about the title of being an Artist, so I try to avoid being called one as much as possible. A lot of people calling themselves an Artist these days. I think you must earn the title. I’m still on the earning bit, I think.

But anyway. I went on a bit there. My main and most proud achievement would have to be the time where I exhibited in the National Gallery of Ireland for the Zurich Portrait awards. There was a prize of £20000 and only 25 people in Ireland were chosen to exhibit. It was a great event.

Are you currently working on any new exciting projects?

I am currently working with a book publishing company called No Reply Press based in Portland, Oregon. The owner of that is called Griffin Gonzales and the author, Howard Kistler, has commissioned several prints in the form of woodcuts for a story he has written. So far it has been very interesting and a cool commission which I am enjoying. The book is called THE VOYAGE OF MAELDUIN.

Why do you think art is important in society?

Could you imagine society without some form of art. That question could take up a lot of time just arguing with oneself but I’m sure this one would get everyone thinking in their own minds. Just imagine. No art in society. Take a table and chair for example. This is a piece of design. So, I suppose logically this equals Art. Wouldn’t be pretty to look at as such as it was created to perform a function. If something is imagined and there is a creative process to construct it, is that not art? Without any form of representational art then you would be living in a dead or robot society. No opinion. No expression. Pretty dull.

Ugghh. No idea what society would be like without art. I should have just said yeah, Art is important in society - We will go with that as the answer.

https://www.connormaguire.com

ARTIST INTERVIEW: Connor Maguire