Seeking the Still
states evoked, different for each who will view her work in the still moment of contemplation. This is not expressionism, her work does not intend to use painterly means to push for an emotional response; instead, she brings an oriental sensibility to her work, allowing the viewer the space to value their own feelings, as we do in front of Mark Rothko, all be it on a cabinet, almost votive scale. Her layering, observed in nature, becomes a paradigm for complexity of mood.
The same acuity of observation, on a similar scale, can be found in Constable’s landscape sketches, a common influence on the Barbizon School and any painter who has walked the landscape in search of universal truth in the fleeting changes in atmosphere. But for Mooney it is the real topography of the west coast of Ireland as well as the atmosphere that inspires hand and eye. The sharp profile of the headland beyond Clew Bay at dawn or sunset is as deeply familiar to the artist as Mont St Victoire was to Cézanne; the
mud flats at low tide at Lough Swilly in Donegal is her palette. In this respect her work chimes with Irish antecedents; Paul Henry in Donegal and Connemara and even William Orpen in Cork. The abstract painter Sean Scully favours the same cream and peat palette and proportions of masses as Mooney.
In this exhibition she has added subjects, painted and drawn the lonely tree, blasted by salt winds, bare in winter, unsentimental sentinel of a harsh beauty. And she has come indoors, in the halflight of dawn or dusk, and delineated simple still life: a jug of a few flowers or a plate of pears.
Mooney seems a painter for our times, making work that values what is in front of us, at once timeless and vulnerable, not a seeker of beauty but a painter of terse epigrams of landscape; truthful to real and emotional experience.
Guy Peploe
Ebb & Flow is an exploration of a range of subjects, from the lone pear tree and flora outside my studio window, to the unspoilt shores of Caher Pier, Lough Mask, Clew Bay, Connemara and beyond.
County Mayo offers astounding geological diversity and endless stimuli for artists; from rugged coasts and crags, to ancient, burnt sienna bogs, and majestic turquoise waters off the Atlantic coast of Clew Bay, in the shadow of Croagh Patrick.
There are several paintings of Croagh Patrick in the exhibition. Also known as ‘Cruachán Aigle’, ‘Mountain of the Eagle’, it exudes power and purity. At times, mist embraces the mountain, all but removing it from vision. At sunset, shafts of golden,
Ebb & Flow
magical rays cast the mountain into enigmatic, ultramarine blue.
2,500 feet below Croagh Patrick lie the shores of Bertra Strand. I visit this beach at all times of day and year to feel the crisp Atlantic breeze sweep in and envelope the land. There, I watch the unremitting battle between land and sea. Observing the coastline and being beside water is key to my understanding of the sky, which too, is in constant flux.
There are paintings of Lough Swilly, where I grew up in County Donegal. There, I began to develop ideas about the intrinsic and inherent values of my subject. In Mayo, Lough Mask has the same curious allure, Ireland’s largest lake by volume, with
dark waters that plummet to depths of 164 feet. These locations nourish the ‘internal landscape’ inside me and a spirit of place that reverberates through my paintings.
I work on several scales simultaneously, enabling me to oscillate between representation and abstraction, varying my techniques and mark making. My practice is fuelled by the challenge of encapsulating the expansive skies, unyielding force, luminous and transient light of landscape. These are the landscapes that have drawn me to them, guided me, and helped me move forward in life with purpose.
Hannah Mooney
Still Life
1. Two Pears, 2023 oil on board, 11.5 x 9.5 cm
2. Pears, 2023 oil on board, 16 x 14.5 cm
3. White Flowers in Blue Vase, 2021 oil on board, 20 x 16 cm
4. Fruit on White Cloth, 2021 oil on board, 10 x 16.5 cm
5. Green and Red Apples, 2023 oil on board, 13 x 20.5 cm
6. Tulips I, 2021 oil on board, 15.5 x 12.5 cm
7. Fruit on Table, 2023 oil on board, 12 x 13 cm
8. Red Flowers, 2024 oil on board, 13.5 x 10 cm
9. White Flowers, 2021 oil on board, 16.5 x 14.5 cm
10. Yellow Flowers in a Vase, 2022 oil on board, 24 x 17 cm
11. Daisies, 2022 charcoal, ink and gesso on paper, 42 x 29 cm
12. White Flowers on Table, 2021 oil on board, 20 x 16 cm
The Landscape of Home
13. Clew Bay, Ebb and Flow, 2024 oil on board, 53 x 80.5 cm
14. Grey Clouds over Sea, 2024 oil on board, 11 x 18 cm
15. Blue Seascape II, 2021 oil on board, 10 x 13 cm
16. Blue Seascape I, 2021 oil on board, 10 x 16 cm
17. Scardaune I, 2022 oil on board, 15 x 20 cm
18. Sea in Motion, 2021 oil on board, 12.5 x 15.5 cm
19. Scardaune II, 2023 oil on board, 25 x 30.5 cm
20. Morning Light, 2022 oil on board, 14.5 x 16.5 cm
21. Light over Shoreline, 2021 oil on plywood board, 13 x 20 cm
22. Hawthorn, 2023 oil on board, 13 x 10 cm
24. Evening Light over Scardaune, 2023 oil on board, 20 x 16 cm
23. Light over Fields, Co. Mayo, 2023 oil on board, 15 x 12 cm
25. Big Tree, Mayo, 2024 graphite and charcoal on paper, 14.5 x 20 cm
26. Trees, 2023 oil on board, 16 x 20 cm
27. Light over Scardaune, Co. Mayo, 2023 oil on board, 15 x 13.5 cm
28. Across Mayo, 2022 oil on board,18 x 25.5 cm
29. Cloud over Ballyglass, Co. Mayo I, 2023 oil on canvas board, 18 x 12.5 cm
30. Cloud over Ballyglass, Co. Mayo II, 2024 oil on plywood board, 20 x 13 cm
31. Evening Light over Bertra Strand, 2024 oil on board, 45.5 x 90 cm
32. View from Bertra Strand Shore I, 2023 oil on board, 9 x 16 cm
33. View from Bertra Strand Shore II, 2023 oil on board, 20 x 30 cm
34. Co. Mayo II, 2023 oil on board, 13 x 20 cm
35. Cloud over Mulranny, 2023 oil on board, 20 x 30 cm
36. Rain over Bertra Strand, 2024 oil on board, 61 x 91 cm
37. Doolough Valley, 2023 oil on board, 13 x 20 cm
38. Connemara Hills, 2022 oil on board, 40 x 70 cm
39. Murrisk, 2023 oil on board, 12 x 14.5 cm
40. Clew Bay I, 2023 oil on board, 14.5 x 24.5 cm
41. Lough Mask II, 2021 oil on board, 60 x 90 cm
42. Clew Bay, Evening, 2023 oil on board, 45 x 79.5 cm
43. Overcast Day, 2021-24 oil on board, 20 x 30 cm
45. Lough Swilly II, 2023 oil on board, 14 x 16 cm
44. Lough Swilly I, 2023 oil on board, 13.5 x 20 cm
46. Cirrus Cloud over Lough, 2022 oil on board, 16 x 20 cm
47. Murrisk Harbour, 2024 oil on board, 40 x 70 cm
48. Caher Pier, 2024 oil on board, 62.5 x 91.5 cm
49. West of Ireland Lough, 2024 oil on board, 35 x 50 cm
50. Evening Sky, Caher Pier, 2024 oil on board, 56 x 83 cm
Nature has helped me embrace the present, the unknown and look to the future with sharpened focus.
Hannah Mooney
Hannah Mooney
b.1995 Ramelton, Co. Donegal, Ireland
Education:
2014-17 BA Painting and Printmaking, Glasgow
School of Art
2013-14 Art and Design Foundation, University of Ulster
Awards:
Fleming-Wyfold Art Bursary, 2018
Hottinger Prize for Excellence, 2018
House for an Art Lover Award, 2018
Art in Healthcare Prize, 2018
RSA John-Kinross Scholarship, 2017
RSA Landscape Drawing Prize, 2017
James Nicol McBroom Memorial Prize, 2017
Armour Prize, 2017
Glasgow Print Studio Publication Prize, 2017
Dean’s Award for High Achievement, University of Ulster, 2014
Solo Exhibitions:
Shorelines and Horizons, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2023
Recent Paintings, Messums, Wiltshire, 2022
IntotheLandscape, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2021
EmergingTalent, Messums, Wiltshire, 2020
Notes From The West, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2019
Hannah Mooney, winner of the Fleming-Wyfold
Art Bursary 2018, John Martin Gallery, London, 2019
Group Exhibitions:
TheMiniatureGallery, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2023
WinterGathering, Hamilton Gallery, Sligo, 2022
Scottish Women Artists Transforming Tradition, Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, 2022
Curated in Contrast, Messums, London, 2020
ModernMastersWomen, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2020
Colour and Light: The Art and Influence of the Scottish Colourists, Abbott Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, 2019
Art in Healthcare Exhibition, Inverleith House, The Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, 2019
New Scottish Artists, Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation, The Cello Factory, London, 2018
Royal Scottish Watercolours Society Exhibition, RSA Galleries, Edinburgh, 2018
From The Sublime To The Concrete, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2018
NewContemporaries Exhibition, RSA Galleries, Edinburgh, 2018
FBA Futures Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London, 2018
RBARisingStars Exhibition, Framers Gallery, London, 2018
Art of Collecting Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London, 2018
Art in Healthcare Exhibition, Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh, 2018
Epilepsy Scotland Lifeworks Exhibition, Blythswood Square, Glasgow, 2017
New Generation Show, Compass Gallery, Glasgow, 2017
Aon Art Community Award Exhibition, The Leadenhall Building, London, 2017
Collections:
Art in Healthcare, Edinburgh
Fleming-Wyfold Collection, London
Hottinger Group, London
James Nichol McBroom Archive, Glasgow
Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition
Hannah Mooney Ebb & Flow
31 October - 23 November 2024
Exhibition can be viewed online at: scottish-gallery.co.uk/hannahmooney
ISBN: 978-1-912900-91-6
Designed and Produced by The Scottish Gallery
Photography by John McKenzie
Printed by Pure Print
Front cover: Clew Bay, Ebb and Flow, 2024, oil on board, 53 x 80.5 cm, cat.13 (detail)
All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in any form by print, photocopy or by any other means, without the permission of the copyright holders and of the publishers.
