A Little Bit About Me
I’m Paula Hynes, a mixed media artist living in the heartlands of Ireland in beautiful County Westmeath. Born in Dublin in the 1960s, I’ve lived in Australia, Britain and numerous counties in Ireland before settling down in the rural midlands 23 years ago.
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Blind in my right eye since the age of two, I have difficulty with perspective and spatial awareness. I could never, ever have imagined that later in my life I’d be creating art. I came to art for the very first time a few years ago during a period of bereavement. I was simply looking for something to rest my mind on never knowing that it would take me on such a joyful journey and become such an integral gift of the second half of my life.
I hope my approach to painting and perspective tells you a lot about who I am and how I experience my surroundings.
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I work out of my garden studio at my home just outside the village of Delvin alongside my husband, Tadhg @thefolkswholiveonthehill who works from his own workshop creating beautiful bespoke picture frames. All frames provided with my artwork are handmade by Tadhg – he’s a little bit of a creative genius you see :) .
I work on various substrates including wood panels, hand-stretched cotton canvases and heavy graded archival paper.
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Working primarily with mixed media I use large brushes, palette knives, even old store cards to achieve different thicknesses, marks and textures helping in the development of the history of the piece itself.
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I love a blank canvas and can’t wait to get started and see where the journey is going to take me. I love to allow drips to flow, to blot with paper towels and use a variety of mark making materials from my garden and my country walks. Items such as twigs, branches, leaves, stones and feathers gathered on these walks, help provide various scratching effects in my work.
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My inspiration springs daily from my love of the natural richness of the Irish rural landscapes.