Bernadette Carter
BERNADETTE CARTER
ARTIST’S STATEMENT APRIL 2010
In 2002 I graduated from Gorey School of Art with an Advanced Certificate in Visual Art. Subsequently I was made a member of the Gorey Arts Circle, a long-standing artist collective close to my home. I have exhibited annually in Ireland and have completed many commissioned works over the past 10 years. In 2006 I was awarded the Lions Club Painting Award for work I exhibited at the prestigious Wexford Arts Centre. Following this award I completed an artists residency at Ciall Rialaig in Co. Kerry, which helped develop my work enormously. My work has been exhibited and sold at many prestigious venues including at the National Portrait Exhibition in Newtownbarry House, the Wexford Arts Centre, Éigse Arts Festival in Co. Carlow and also at the Oireachtas in Dublin.
My work exists somewhere between an invented reality and actuality. My simplified, somewhat idyllic images strive to evoke a warm curious response from the viewer. Thematically my work is concerned with the figure, more specifically the child. As a mother, I have bared witness to the development and maturing of my two children. In my paintings, I attempt to present the child in a traditional setting, devoid of technological interferences. By choosing to represent the child in such a way, I hope to raise questions of innocence, hope, the future and the fragility of mankind.
