Nightswimming

Nightswimming

Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Size: 81 × 81 × 3 cm

Growing up in Dublin, I have countless memories of warm summer nights spent at the beach, watching the sun dip below the horizon and the stars slowly emerge. Nightswimming is my attempt to capture the sense of peace and nostalgia that comes with floating in the calm, dark waters, feeling the cool breeze on your skin, and watching the sky transform above you.

The painting evolved through experimentation rather than from a fixed plan. Different elements were gradually brought together into a single work. The swimmer wasn’t painted onto the surface. Instead, as layers of paint and pigment were dragged and wiped across the canvas, an untouched area gradually revealed the figure. Once I recognised it, I worked around it, letting the swimmer emerge as the painting developed.