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What Lies Beneath: Ross Stewart uncovering the hidden layers in landscape of our life

‘Umber Cliffs in Waterford’ by Ross Stewart is soulful and animated

‘Bánaithe’ oil on canvas, by Geraldine O’Neill

‘Umber Cliffs in Waterford’ by Ross Stewart is soulful and animated

‘Bánaithe’ oil on canvas, by Geraldine O’Neill

Sandra Bell's Ballerina

‘Umber Cliffs in Waterford’ by Ross Stewart is soulful and animated

Niall MacMonagle

June 05 2022 02:30 AM

Ross Stewart Umber Cliffs in Waterford

An Oscar-nominated animator, artist and illustrator, Kilkenny man Ross Stewart wears different hats.

Animation, which is labour intensive and collaborative, “is shot and shown at 24 frames per second, 1,440 frames and 720 drawings per minute. For our [Cartoon Saloon] feature Wolfwalkers there were a few hundred people across three countries working on it.”

Stewart, alone in his studio, painting, works to a different pace.

His interest in art began in primary school.

“A fantastic teacher, Mr Griffin, who was also a local artist, focused on art, not hurling, and as a young artist I felt validated. I got into comics and graphic novels and as a teenager I got much more into painting, got really interested in surrealism and then started painting still lifes and landscapes as a way to get better at colour work.

“My mother was a good painter and encouraged me, and my dad instilled a love of the Irish landscape. Rosses Point and the Sligo landscape really shaped me. We used to climb mountains and go off exploring rocky shores and watch storm waves crashing on Raghley. Benbulben and Knocknarea shapes creep into my abstract landscapes.”

At Senior College Ballyfermot, Stewart studied animation, and says: “But we were lucky in that it had a huge amount of life drawing and some fantastic fine art elements to it. Laura Venables told us to go beyond realism and to try and get emotion and gesture into our drawing.”

His art, he says, is about “hidden items and layers covering layers, the balance of opposites, chaos versus calm” and just as “we all have many layers to ourselves, I believe good art should too”.

A friend described his landscapes as psychological landscapes and Stewart says “that’s apt”. When he paints, he tends to focus on “a mood born of the place, maybe from lingering centuries, memories of the people who lived and died there, maybe a barren isolation with nothing but a raw energy of the elements”.

Video of the Day

In Umber Cliffs in Waterford, mixed media on cotton rag, Stewart has painted Benvoy Beach, just past Annestown, “where I swam last year on a gorgeous sunny day”.

What he loves about the Copper Coast, “in contrast to the rocky, craggy west of Ireland, is the deep fertile soil leading up to the epic, jagged, pirate-like coves. In this painting I tried to get the sense of farms and homes and this deep, deep soil shadowing the Atlantic at the base of the cliff.”

Earth colours dominate. “I go though Raw Umber the most. If I painted in California or southern Spain, bright reds and yellows would feature but an Irish landscape artist goes through a lot of muddy colours. I love the palette of Ireland: lush green fields, flushes of bright gorse and heather against the ever-changing weather. Prussian Blue, Raw Umber and Titanium White have stayed with me for years.”

Compositionally, Stewart says, this work is rooted in the contrast between the little peaceful habitations and stone walls and lanes and the rugged coastline with chaotic flotsam and jetsam and detritus in from the sea, suggesting recent storms. It’s the contrast between coastal dwellings and unpredictable seas. There’s many a story in that.”

‘Umber Cliffs in Waterford’ with its sun-filled landscape, its dramatic cliffs, its sweep of sea, is lively, soulful, animated. There’s a story there.

New work by Ross Stewart is on show at the Joan Clancy Gallery, Ring, Co Waterford, until June 12. Instagram @rossstewart.art; rossstewart.net

‘Bánaithe’ oil on canvas, by Geraldine O’Neill

On show: Two to view

Geraldine O’Neill
Solastalgia

O’Neill’s work draws on her experience as a mother. She frequently incorporates her children’s drawings into her own work “to remind adults of other times in their lives, when things appeared more straightforward and hopeful”. Her technically brilliant paintings honour past masters but also express O’Neill’s own unique contemporary and imaginative response to life in our time.
Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, until June 18

Sandra Bell's Ballerina

Looking Forward Looking Back

This Group Show, featuring North Louth Artists, marks the group’s 54 years in existence. Formed in 1968 by Nano Reid and Bea Orpen, the network is one of the longest established groups of its kind anywhere in the world. This year’s show includes paintings, prints and sculptures by 14 North Louth professional artists – plus contributions from invited artists.
An Táin Arts Centre, Dundalk, until June 11

What Lies Beneath: Ross Stewart uncovering the hidden layers in landscape of our life

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On show: Two to view

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