A Splash of Colour
Stephanie Sloan - 2 Dec 2023 - 29 Feb 2024
A Splash of Colour is a collaboration with Cavistons
A collection of 5 screenprints by Stephanie Sloan, all handprinted by the artist, and produced between 2020 – 2023.
“Howth” and “Sun Seats” belong to a series of 10 editions of the landscape local to Glasthule & Sandycove. “Undulations I & II” explores the landscape local to Sloan’s studio in Wicklow and are part of a series of 10 editions., The image “Floral Form I;”series of 6 editions which explore a new direction for the artist in organic forms.
Stephanie Sloan graduated from the National College of Art and Design and the Royal College of Art, London. In 2005, she won an IDI, Design for All award and in 2020 was a recipient of a Future Makers Award by the Design and Crafts Council Ireland. She has gone on to develop herself both as an artist and designer (illustrator) and as a participant in several international print fairs.
In essence, Sloan’s work is vibrant and joyful. Her unique pared-back visual style is part of a defining feature of Irish Contemporary culture.
The image “Howth” represents her free hand drawing on location from the beautiful settings across Dublin Bay at Sandycove Beach, Co Dublin, Ireland. Sandycove, enshrined by James Joyce in Ulysses, is a much-loved bathing location. She simplified and deconstructed the natural beauty of the rock formations along this coastline. She subtly transcribes Howth Head's shape and the peninsula that juts into North Dublin Bay.
In 2021, she experimented with a large pen brush with Indian ink “en Plein air” around the dune-lined coast of Co Wicklow. In “Undulations I & II”, she captures the gentle sway of marram grasses looking south on Brittas Bay beach in bold solid strokes. Her intense colours of yellow ochre and blue cobalt ensure a high degree of clarity and harmony. The result is a diptych that appears spontaneous in style.
Her practice, by 2022, developed towards more complex layering in the screen-printing process. While relying on her free hand drawing, the image “Sun Seats” results from this exploration. She renders the work with bold and vibrant colours. The effect is recapturing a sun-drenched summer's day when she revisited Sandycove Beach.
Her continued fascination with Henri Émile Benoît Matisse ‘cut-outs’ has largely influenced Sloan’s more recent exploration of colour and line in the motif “Floral Form I.” Her technique, execution, and control of the bleed of the paint produce a refined graphic portrayal of the simple flower.
