Claire O’Hea explains her inspirations, experiencing a Super Blue Moon and the mystery of the octopus

The Fragility of Cut Flowers. Pink peonies Fade to White

Hi Claire, Can you tell us about your paintings; what inspires and influences you?
I have always drawn inspiration from the natural world and felt a strong connection to it since I was a small child. It is a theme that I explore continually through my work. I have sat and painted outside for many years, but only recently have I been able to unpick this experience as I seek to further understand my relationship with what exists both outside and inside of me. I no longer wish to remain on the edge, but fully embrace the mystery of life through painting, as fully as I can. Nature, other life forms, plants and animals share this experience. It is a symbiotic relationship. We belong to ‘it’ and not the other way around. Our primal nature is still deeply connected with the earth, we live surrounded by beauty and pain and have yet so very much more to learn from it. For me at this present moment all these things are simply too great to ignore and all the more prescient  as the world is in crisis. We are being asked to be more present and aware of our own behaviour and responsibility to a sentient planet that is reflecting and affected by our toxic lifestyles. Painting for me is a way to reconnect and explore this relationship, to gain a deeper understanding of who I am, my place in the world in search of answers and acceptance in order to reach a final sensation, that can be best described by the word peace.


Spellbound

You talk about experiencing a Blue Moon; what significance or resonance does this have for you and your work?
‘In Awe. Witnessing the rise of a Super Blue Moon’:  My Summer was spent in Portugal waiting for a rare phenomenon to appear. A Super Blue Moon was set to rise on the 19th of August. I had spent the summer painting still lives in my garden. They had an enormous impact on me as I came to the realisation that the paintings knew what I did not, and rather than me imposing my will on them I was being asked to follow their mysterious lead. When faced with fading peonies in a vase, the cut flowers asked to be returned to their former glory, only once I had understood what they had been could I then paint them as they were. Spilt Secrets also held a similar process. Placing an overturned black and red basket on a blue and white dish with pomegranates and whelk shells, I remained unaware of the story that lay below. I later discovered the meaning of the design. The Willow Pattern is a story about star crossed lovers who flee the wrath of an angry father, escape to a remote island where they are discovered and lose their lives. They are transformed by the gods into a pair of flying doves, immortalised above a moon bridge as a symbol of true love. On arriving in Portugal things began to connect once again. A book that had lain on my mother’s bookshelf for years suddenly stood out amongst all the others. I pulled it out and was amazed to find a novel called, ‘The Willow Pattern’ which connected to the still life that I had just painted back in England. At about the very same time I discovered that a super blue moon would rise in mid-August. I knew I had been led to witness this event. Primitive societies understand the signs that are offered up by Nature, they don’t question their validity but trust in the process that the earth spirit has spoken. I had found myself without children. I had not spent a Summer without them for 17 years. I decided to spend each day at the beach. I made a packed lunch, read, slept and swam, painting in the late afternoons when everyone else had left. I was able to fully assimilate with my environment as there were no distractions. I had only to sit with myself, nothing else was being asked of me. Resonating fully with what was around me I would begin to paint as the sun set each day. I was alone on a huge expanse of sand waiting for the blue moon to appear. It was a magical and life changing event for me. I felt full, and more complete than I have ever done. The work I made over the course of 3 weeks took many different directions, some of it was observed, obvious / a response, some of it made in the dark could only be playfully felt, each day I understood more fully what I was looking at as I became more intimately attuned to my surroundings. It became a part of me as I had become a part of it. The final phase of the full moon rising in the dark was a spectacle I will always remember, impossible to capture but equally impossible to forget. The painting of the pink octopus like figure came to me when I had returned to the house. The canvas was almost black, lifeless, disappointing. I put the canvas down on the table outside and had the urge to paint but I did not know what I would do. A mysterious creature just fell out of me. I had no real idea what it was until I woke up the next morning. Enchanted I smiled. ‘She’ whatever she was, embodied the feeling I had been unable to capture, a spellbound creature floating above a dark ground, a majestic humanlike octopus.


Moon Door

What and who are your major influences?
I am influenced by the natural world, the books that I read, intuitive personal experiences, deep meaningful conversations with Jonathon Fordham and by the teachings of contemporary artist Luke Hannam. I have attended Luke’s classes off and on since January 2022 and paint at his studio in Rye every Friday. He is a force of nature, curious, fascinating, powerful and sensitive. His work is figuratively based and explores colour, human relationships and emotion within a whole range of painting processes and imagery. His input and encouragement, the knowledge that he shares so freely combined with his deep intuitive understanding of what painting is, has changed the way I look and understand painting to be. I am so very grateful to have encountered the work of so many great inspiring writers, and to have had the opportunity to connect and share my ideas and thoughts with two such amazing human beings.


So Calm. Filled with Gratitude

You like to tell us a bit about your painting processes?
I use acrylics, oils, soft pastels and charcoal on paper, canvas or board. I work directly from life or structure a painting based on a drawing I have made as an initial starting point. As the painting develops, I no longer use a reference but follow an intuitive process, often working over previous ideas until I build up a surface and language that speaks to me. There are lucid moments, moments of confusion and being utterly lost, like steering a ship, if one can push through the storm something will eventually rise out of the depths to be further explored.  I particularly like working wet into wet, overlapping thin and thickly applied paint and exploring how these areas behave against other painted motifs. It is a fluid instinctive process for me. I search and push paint until something reveals itself to me. It is a journey of logical steps combined with intuitive mark making and self-discovery.


Traces of Rose Pink Above Jade Green Waves

Is it important to you to meet and talk to potential buyers of your work?
Speaking and meeting people at the Open Houses is a joy, especially when people connect with your work and are curious about the process. It is an exchange; I have much to learn from everyone who comes as we all have stories and experiences that we want to share. Art/painting/creativity opens conversations about all sort of things. I had a lady last Sunday who made a comment about the pink octopus figure. The painting caught her eye immediately as she walked into the space. She had spent a holiday in Greece some years ago. Sitting on a rock with her feet in the water she felt something and on looking down saw an octopus caressing her feet. She screamed as you do! The octopus moved away, frightened by her reaction. She managed to collect herself and said, ‘I’m so sorry I frightened you’. Placing her feet back in the water the octopus returned and touched her skin and toes tenderly with its tentacles. She was no longer afraid.  This experience had a profound effect on her, we spoke about these moments, the moments that you hold sacred, such as a connection of trust with a wild and beautiful creature.

What else do you enjoy about doing an Open House?
I enjoy meeting and speaking with people at the Open Houses, those who have a deep appreciation of the arts and also practise and those who don’t. I also take great pleasure in seeing all the work come together once it has been framed, seeing what I have done, being able to see it objectively and receiving feedback. As an artist we lead solitary lives. The exposure is validating and very important. It is also a wonderful opportunity to sell ones work and meet the buyer in person.


Spilt Secrets

Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?
I think this event is very special as it allows people from all sorts of backgrounds to show their work regardless of whether they have any formal training. Creativity is so important and so many of us do it because we love and need to do it. There is no invigilating process everyone is equally welcome to show their work and express themselves in any medium regardless of their ability.

Visit Claire O’Hea at: 
2 Windlesham Gardens, Brighton, BN1 3AJ

www.instagram.com/claire.ohea

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