Spotlight on Tuam Creatives: Anne Harkin-Petersen

As we continue to support and connect Tuam’s creative community, we’re delighted to shine a light on the incredible creative talent in our town. Meet Anne:

Through Anne’s paintings, primarily through the medium of oil on linen, she explores a contemplative abstract style to best express her ideas, using tone, depth, layers, and mark-making, to invoke a visceral, human response beyond representation. Anne embraces ambiguity in her work and wants to draw attention to the need to ask questions.

Colour theory plays a significant part in Anne’s practice. She loves playing with different combinations that may not fit into the traditional notions of colour ‘rules’.

Why Anne paints and uses colour and mark-making in her work echoes the complexity of our journey through life. How the unexpected and unplanned happen, causing us to stop, consider and perhaps pursue, an avenue that is unforeseen.

Amidst the current socio-political turmoil, the aim of Anne’s work is to enable moments of contemplation, a suspension in time where the immersion in creativity offer a reprieve from the noise.  A chance to pull back from the information overload and reset. The abstract nature of Anne’s images allows space for a subjective experience.

It is important to Anne that her work celebrates elements of surprise and mystery, thereby, creating a catalyst for the expansion of ideas beyond the obvious.

You can see Anne’s work in an upcoming pop-up exhibition on 5 and 6 December alongside Karena Ryan and Rachel Varden at Imelda O’Connor O’Dea’s Hight Street studio (above Canavans/Niche).

Click here to read more about Anne and her work.