Artist Bio

 

Olga Evenden is a multi-disciplinary artist from Dublin, Ireland. Her formal training consists of ‘Third Level Art and Design Practice’ and ‘BA (Honours) Visual Communications’ from TU Dublin, formerly Dublin Institute Technology. Since graduating from DIT in 2000, Olga has worked as a graphic designer and educator, teaching a variety of art and design-related subjects in CDETB. Olga is also an illustrator and abstract painter working mostly with acrylic paint and digital tools.

 

Artist Statement

 

I create bold, expressive, non-figurative paintings using acrylic paint, seeking to resolve the conflict between my formal training in Graphic Design, a late diagnosis of ADHD, and my desire to create raw painterly compositions. Organising and creating systems have always been dominant, and at times overwhelming, aspects of my daily life. To function effectively, I am forced to adhere to a rigid set of “rules”, which can often feel restrictive and controlled. Whether this is an inherent part of my personality or a coping mechanism from years of undiagnosed ADHD, I do not know. However, it was exacerbated by my formal training in Graphic Design, which is also defined by structured organisational systems.

In response to these influences, I seek to create loose, informal, and irregular compositions. My motivation is to evoke a sense of vague, haphazard disorder. Kandinsky, and in particular the women of the post-World War II New York School, have always fascinated me. Like these artists, I explore how each element within my compositions brings individual meaning to the whole. I am captivated by the idea of colour as an object in itself and how unity and harmony shift depending on how colours and marks interact. My goal is to achieve a cohesive balance between colour, texture, lines, and marks, creating a cathartic experience that soothes my anxiety and liberates me from imposed constraints.

My work evolves through a series of sittings. Initially, I lay down an intuitive, unplanned ground, focusing on composition while paying little attention to palette. This creates imbalances that I challenge myself to resolve. I then enter a more considered phase, where I piece together, rearrange, and refine the visual elements. Similar to the puzzle-like structures that sometimes feature in my work, the final result is a process of "fitting" the hastily applied background with a more defined, detail-oriented foreground.