Charmain Fitzgerald (b.1982)

A great deal about Fitzgerald's art is revealed in her extraordinary painting 'Harlequin'. Featuring a technique used by many Old Masters, like Van Eyck and Diego Velazquez, a convex mirror offers a reflection of the room in which the viewer is standing. Or does it? Because if you look closely, the 'mirror' also resembles a security peep-hole. So is the inscrutable harlequin - perched on top of the dresser - in front of us or behind? And wherever he is, what are we to make of him? He is an integral part of the scene, yet so detached, so deliberately distant.

The unanswered questions aroused by this painting give you some idea of the depth of Fitzgerald's work.

Orleans Sky after Katrina

The circumstances of her life have undoubtedly helped to fire her imagination. Born in Preston, Lancashire, she and her family returned to Dublin soon after, before eventually moving to New York when she was 14. She quit school two years later and spent time working in Los Angeles, London and Dublin.

Having studied drawing, painting and sculpture at school and along the way, Fitzgerald is now resident in Dublin where, for the past few years, she has been fully occupied studying and apprenticing under an established Irish artist, and painting at her home studio.

She works mainly in oils, but also acrylics. She is comfortable in most genres, including portraits, genre scenes and landscapes, as well as her distinctive surrealist work. As far as influences are concerned, she cites a number of diverse artists, including: De Lempecke, Botticelli, Hopper, Singer-Sargent, Degas, Gustav Klimt and Cassatt.

Wee Bitsie

Highly skilled in drawing, with a keen eye for perspective - skills which are evident in the figurative and non-figurative work on this page - Fitzgerald describes her paintings as "realist/surrealist, using representational form to create a sense of otherness, not detached from everyday things."

Her painting 'Wee Bitsie' was shown on RTE's The Afternoon Show in January 2007 and was awarded for its visual merit by the panel's judges. It was exhibited along with other works in June and September 2007 at the People's Art Exhibition, St. Stephen's Green.

Fitzgerald's work appears at the Manifesto Gallery in Waterford, in July.

Notre Dame Chimere

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Our Opinion

Based on her draughtsmanship and creativity, as well as the unusual range and depth of her paintings, Fitzgerald is a talent to watch carefully.

To contact Charmain Fitzgerald, or to see more examples of her art, please visit her website: www.charmainfitzgerald.com

Review written by Neil Collins (Editor) (June 2008).

Harlequin (Detail)

Cardinals

Sleepwalking

• For details of famous painters and sculptors from Ireland, see Irish Artists.
• For a specific review of genre-paintings in Ireland, see Irish Genre Painters.
• For more information about Irish sculpture and painting, see: Irish Art.

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