Ciara Murray is a painter whose work explores imagination, beauty, and the quiet calming impact that abstract art can have on a person. Using a mixture of acrylic and oils on canvas, she creates paintings that capture the attention through a range of bright colours yet are understated, blending into any environment, while forcing viewers to interpret the scene by delving into their imagination. Ciara’s abstract scenes exist somewhere between nature, dreams and the simplicity of colour, drawn not only from life but also from memory, feeling, and the beauty of everyone’s unique imagination.

The surface of these paintings contains a dynamic range of textures which subtly add to the tension of the paintings, a result of Ciara’s wave technique. The effect is both extreme and soft, like our imaginations which we forget to use and delve into as we grow older. In Gold Ocean, she captures the emotional connection with viewing the ocean in different weather, a visual impression based on turbulent times we face in life and emotions deep inside. The title speaks to the light we pick out in life even through very hard and rough times, something that we can all call to mind and resonate with.

Other works in the series continue this exploration. Summer Meadow reflects on how the Irish landscape is engrained in our imaginations and memories, with beauty & colour shaped by changing seasons, like the green and yellow we all envisage when we think of a beautiful, lush field of corn in the Irish summertime. Ciara captures the unique beautiful colours of an Irish summer. Ciara focuses on the flow and feeling of the painting, ensuring it is loose, relaxing and free flowing, which transpires into the feeling the viewer gets when viewing the painting.  The paintings are lucid and free flowing which allows them to be interpreted as the heart desires.

Ciara aims to give an injection of colour into lives. An entrance into the simplicity of colour and its effect on our emotions. The hope is to lead the viewer in through the door of their imagination, which is often closed. Giving the viewer a brief escape from reality and a release of endorphins simply by daydreaming into one of these paintings. A treat for the senses, visually by colour but also tactile by touching the texture on the paintings if desired.