Tell me about yourself. What ignited your desire to paint the cities you photograph?

I am an Irish artist from Co. Tipperary, based in Cork City. I've been working as an artist since graduating from art college in 2005.

After being brought up in the countryside just outside a small town and arriving in a busy expanding city. I found the contrast in the scale of my surroundings really interesting and, at times, a little overwhelming. Through painting, I found I was able to capture both the complexity of the city around me and maybe the stillness of the landscape I had grown up in. I really enjoyed focusing in on the details in the subjects but also exaggerating the open space around them.

Since the start of your career in 2005, how have the cities you capture changed? How does your work reflect this?

Well the city has continuously changed and expanded over the past twenty years. Some sections are almost unrecognizable, while other areas probably remain structurally the same. It is very unlikely you will find any area that hasn't been altered somehow.

Through my work I have reflected the change in the city from various viewpoints. Some of my work uses the new high rise buildings and the their glass facades from various angles as its subject or the interior and exterior views of multi story car parks and shopping malls.

The actual construction sites itself has been a subject I have returned to many times. I really enjoy the contrast between the perfectly formed finished exterior beside the skeleton like structure as the building goes through its development. A good example is 'Below the Line'.

I enjoy incorporating the old and the new in to some of my paintings. For example, it could be looking through aged rusted steel frames or containers and using them to frame or lead the viewer to a view of a new high rise office block. Or an old church or run down building reflected in a glass walled exterior of a new office block.

What are the characteristics of an interesting composition to capture?

For me, it has to be something I am really interested in and motivated to work on each day. It can take a long time to paint, so I have to be patient when choosing what I am going to work on next. I really enjoy at times placing various obstacles in the way of the viewer, almost like barriers or layers between the subject and the viewer. Enhancing that sense of depth using window frames, barriers, railings. One of the paintings which I feel I have incorporated this effect most of all is in my painting 'The Source' .

There was a few different aspects which I was trying to emphasise when I began this painting. One was the overall sense of depth of the composition. Using the piled up stones against the platform in the foreground and exaggerating the bulkiness of the two boxes protruding from the control panel in the middle, I was hoping to draw the viewer in to this almost upright rectangular centre stage area.

The hangers overhead and the platform behind the control panel help create more depth and on the right side the hangers and yellow poles lead you into a distant railed fence. Behind this from the base of the large vat and the shadow of the ladder joins the actual ladder and lead you up to the most distant section of the right side and around the back. The sunlight breaking through the various obstacles also help provide that sense of depth.

On the left hand side the viewer is brought from the nearest subject the platform on the left foreground, to the furthest away object in the painting which is the vat in the middle ground. Previously, I had various buildings here but I though putting another vat, really helped exaggerate the sense of depth because of the difference in scale.The interaction of the various railings on that side help achieve this too.

I was also concerned with the overall composition and keeping the bottom half framed off but still a main part of the scene and giving the large vat space to recognize its volume.

I like the idea of opposites in my work like the clean shiny surfaces against gritty mucky areas. The complicated structure on the right against the simple scene on the left and the clean bright light on the right of the main vat against the dark and dirtier left side. The top half of the painting against the bottom half of the painting.

Thinking about your most recent piece, describe your process from start to finish.

The most recent piece I have completed is a painting called 'From the Bridge', which has been selected for this years 195th Royal Hibernian Annual Exhibition 2025 in Dublin, Ireland. Its a painting I have put away and come back to many times since beginning it about three years ago.

The original idea was to try and find a composition that would incorporate a few different aspects I liked from previous paintings and combine them in one piece. This is generally how my work develops, the main subject being the petrol station itself; which is a theme I've come back to many times. The buildings in the background have been part of many other paintings I have done from different vantage points also.

I wanted to create as much depth as possible and by keeping the sign and lamppost as close to the foreground as I could it helped to exaggerate the sense of perspective as if they are coming out of the canvas itself. The top of the light protruding out also helps convey the height and distance of the viewer to the ground below . I really liked the calmness of the right hand side foreground from the beginning so I've left it as pared down as possible in contrast to the left side. I have tried to make each structure as defined as possible to help create depth and space in the painting.

I begin with drawing in the composition and then gradually building up some washes. I will draw in some more details as i go, while adding in some more washes. I try to keep it as loose with the washes as I can, so If I like parts, I can leave it in the finished painting. Once I'm happy, I start adding in some details and you have to start making decisions then if you want to keep sections that you like and if they work with the original composition. This can also relate to colour too as I like to keep as much light in the painting as I can until the end. Then it’s about building up the level of details across the whole painting and hope it ties together in the end.

You have previously stated you gather a large body of photographic images before starting a painting. Do you work from one reference photo or multiple?

I work from various images and combine them but I rarely start a painting without having the entire composition ready to draw out first, so even if I add subjects later and it doesn't work, I have the original reference to fall back on. I find sometimes the painting can take so long and you are so concentrated on it you come across thing you could add from other pieces or by going back to the original place and seeing something that might make it more interesting. It could be something as simple as a traffic cone or a sign post. In the painting 'High Time' I have painted it straight from the image as a whole composition as it would be hard to get right as of the importance of the effect im going for in it.

Who is your greatest artist inspiration? If you could ask them one question, what would it be?

Edward Hopper has inspired me for as long as I have been a painter. I'm pretty sure he worked slowly and methodically, and I really liked that everything he did was so considered. I suppose It would be nice to know what he would be drawn to paint now, if he was to come back for a day.

What has been your greatest achievement so far as an artist? Have you endured any challenges?

I was lucky enough that my painting won a purchase prize at my degree show from the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork in 2005. This meant it was part of a public collection and was important in that it motivated me to get a body of work together and keep painting after leaving college, which can be the hardest step. Getting selected for some of the major Annual Exhibitions in Ireland and Britain has been wonderful and really encouraging seeing your work next to artists that may have inspired you.

I think the challenges are that you won’t always get accepted or have your work recognised. There are times when you may have a great week or month of good news and then months and months can go by without anything positive. I have found that if I'm trying to push my work in the studio and hopefully developing with each new painting or series, it will put me in a better position when these opportunities come around again.

Why do you think art is important in society?

I think it is important in so many ways for people of all ages and at different times in their lives. Art is always there for us even if its just to pick up a brush once a year, study an artist you admire or take a trip around the galleries. I think it’s interesting to see how people approach the most simple subject like a single object on a table. It doesn't matter if they are beginner or lifelong artist, the approaches are always so varied and shows how differently we all see the world and react to it. It helps us to see things through other peoples eyes and may spark something in ourselves on how we view the everyday.

Gary Kearney

ARTIST INTERVIEW: GARY KEARNEY