Looking Back and Looking Forwards

2023 had been an incredible year in many ways. An undoubted highlight was the wedding of our daughter Helena to Ruaidhri Ryan, in Italy this summer, a delightful and love filled occasion that touched everyone.  

Another highlight was to have a painting selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Ruaidhri is also an artist and he had originally encouraged me to enter. 

Looking back over my work in the last two years my paintings have focused on the gesture of figure and flow of fabric. I have been working on the interplay between the body, pattern and fabric since my Masters project fifteen years ago, when I made short films with moving bodies in silhouette performing woven and repeat pattern textile designs with the aid of post-production motion graphics. You might almost say there is a thread running through my career.

Preparatory drawing and acrylic painting on board, ‘Cuff 2’, modelled by Ruaidhri.

Looking forward, I am researching the Renaissance painter Lavinia Fontana, exploring the figure and contemporary examples of fashion and decorative details. I can’t wait to get stuck into these Christmas books.

I wish you a peaceful and restorative Christmas and New Year and look forward to being in touch with you in 2024. 

Fiona Geilinger