PERSONAL STATEMENT
Currently I am working as a freelance creative partner within various settings, introducing art into environments where it can promote and stimulate a sense of exploration and fun and learning. I've taken various courses over the years and more recently worked very closely with a wonderful and inspiring disabled artist. Many of my paintings will develop as a visual stream of consciousness, where expressive and vigorous applications of paint suggest and provoke images which once worked on will in turn tease out new ideas. It is a discovery of motifs , an art of hide and seek. Taking reference from the real world, sketching and observation are essential elements of developing ideas but the memory of the 'scene' is the most stimulating and authentic reference in much of my work. I tend to work in series and often the work is developed in both an expressive and symbolic way.
CV
Education
Aug 2009-Mar 2010
Certificate in interpersonal skills for volunteers (currently studying)
Lampeter, University of Wales
Apr 2009 Community Arts Training Scheme (CATS)
2005-2008 City and Guilds life drawing and portraiture
2000-2002 Open College of the Arts
1988-1989 The Central London AEI foundation course in art and design
ABOUT THE GALLERIES
SEASCAPES
Simply, I love the sea. It's beautiful, terrifying and never boring.
----
Raw Ocean
Crash of symphonic roar,
Melody of discord as
Manic, driven, hungry
Wave Wages war.
Fights cliff and continent
clawing sculpture.
Always sure of victory.
No victory but surrender
For man and machine.
(c) Celia Buttigieg
FIGURATIVE
My more figurative paintings are not based on any one idea, they usually come about as a visual response to a thought, a line of poetry, an item of news, a thread of conversation......a glimse of something..... I may write down or sketch the idea and it may lay hidden for ages but eventually it will become a painting and more likely than not grow far beyond my original concept. It's a humbling process because I'm never quite sure where it's going to take me and the journey can be tortuous but always enlightening and exciting.
RED HORSE SERIES (Series 1)
These paintings are an ongoing project. The red horse is central to each painting with the merry-go-round also making an appearance in most if not all the paintings. The underlying theme is about freedom and each work will have its own deeper meaning.
Monochrome Series (Series 2)
I've always loved monochrome, feeling it has a timeless sense of mystery and felt it would suit this particular theme very well.
GALLERY 1
This gallery is a mixture of different subjects and varies in method and style from impressionist to expressive. It is dedicated to a wonderful artist and friend who recently passed away. All the paintings included will be dedicated to her. Below are a couple of poems I wrote just after her death.
Gallery 2
A new series I am currently working on. Pre-historic structures stand proud and enigmatic. Time erodes, they resist, we probe and ask questions, they stand silent and inspire.
SACRED ART
This portrait was painted for the canonization of Blessed Jeanne Jugan, which took place on the 11th of October 2009 and is to be presented to the Little Sisters of the Poor in London in the New Year.
Jeanne Jugan was a remarkable woman who devoted her life to the care of the elderly and infirm. She showed deep compassion for the elderly and from the moment she took in an abandoned elderly lady called Anne Chauvin and looked after her in her own home, the order which was to become known as the Little Sisters of the poor had begun and continued to grow all over the world.
POEMS
LETTING GO
In a carpark waiting.
The engine's on.
I need the warmth.
Dark outside,
Lights in windows across the way,
They form a pleasing pattern,
Left to right,
Tungsten, amber,
A little red glow.
Adagio and a few tears,
Pain of loss
Grips hard.
That's what it's all about,
Life.
Letting go,
Lots of letting go.
Letting go,
Becoming small,
Very small,
Empty,
Ready to be filled
With something new,
Truth.
TEDDY BEAR
I bought him on holiday
A little bear
Without a name.
I chose his face very carefully,
No frowns,
Only smiles
For a special person.
I imagined him
Sitting on the window sill,
Next to the cat,
Maybe on the table
Next to some flowers,
She loved flowers,
Flowers with happy faces.
Maybe on the dressing table,
Next to the three bears,
mummy.daddy and baby bear,
A new addition
A friend to smile back.
Little bear all smiles,
Can't cry,
Even on a bright day
In a hospital room.
Can't cry behind
The cards
'Get Well' they say.
Little bear
Carried in a suitcase so far,
Came to say good-bye.
Currently I am working as a freelance creative partner within various settings, introducing art into environments where it can promote and stimulate a sense of exploration and fun and learning. I've taken various courses over the years and more recently worked very closely with a wonderful and inspiring disabled artist. Many of my paintings will develop as a visual stream of consciousness, where expressive and vigorous applications of paint suggest and provoke images which once worked on will in turn tease out new ideas. It is a discovery of motifs , an art of hide and seek. Taking reference from the real world, sketching and observation are essential elements of developing ideas but the memory of the 'scene' is the most stimulating and authentic reference in much of my work. I tend to work in series and often the work is developed in both an expressive and symbolic way.
CV
Education
Aug 2009-Mar 2010
Certificate in interpersonal skills for volunteers (currently studying)
Lampeter, University of Wales
Apr 2009 Community Arts Training Scheme (CATS)
2005-2008 City and Guilds life drawing and portraiture
2000-2002 Open College of the Arts
1988-1989 The Central London AEI foundation course in art and design
ABOUT THE GALLERIES
SEASCAPES
Simply, I love the sea. It's beautiful, terrifying and never boring.
----
Raw Ocean
Crash of symphonic roar,
Melody of discord as
Manic, driven, hungry
Wave Wages war.
Fights cliff and continent
clawing sculpture.
Always sure of victory.
No victory but surrender
For man and machine.
(c) Celia Buttigieg
FIGURATIVE
My more figurative paintings are not based on any one idea, they usually come about as a visual response to a thought, a line of poetry, an item of news, a thread of conversation......a glimse of something..... I may write down or sketch the idea and it may lay hidden for ages but eventually it will become a painting and more likely than not grow far beyond my original concept. It's a humbling process because I'm never quite sure where it's going to take me and the journey can be tortuous but always enlightening and exciting.
RED HORSE SERIES (Series 1)
These paintings are an ongoing project. The red horse is central to each painting with the merry-go-round also making an appearance in most if not all the paintings. The underlying theme is about freedom and each work will have its own deeper meaning.
Monochrome Series (Series 2)
I've always loved monochrome, feeling it has a timeless sense of mystery and felt it would suit this particular theme very well.
GALLERY 1
This gallery is a mixture of different subjects and varies in method and style from impressionist to expressive. It is dedicated to a wonderful artist and friend who recently passed away. All the paintings included will be dedicated to her. Below are a couple of poems I wrote just after her death.
Gallery 2
A new series I am currently working on. Pre-historic structures stand proud and enigmatic. Time erodes, they resist, we probe and ask questions, they stand silent and inspire.
SACRED ART
This portrait was painted for the canonization of Blessed Jeanne Jugan, which took place on the 11th of October 2009 and is to be presented to the Little Sisters of the Poor in London in the New Year.
Jeanne Jugan was a remarkable woman who devoted her life to the care of the elderly and infirm. She showed deep compassion for the elderly and from the moment she took in an abandoned elderly lady called Anne Chauvin and looked after her in her own home, the order which was to become known as the Little Sisters of the poor had begun and continued to grow all over the world.
POEMS
LETTING GO
In a carpark waiting.
The engine's on.
I need the warmth.
Dark outside,
Lights in windows across the way,
They form a pleasing pattern,
Left to right,
Tungsten, amber,
A little red glow.
Adagio and a few tears,
Pain of loss
Grips hard.
That's what it's all about,
Life.
Letting go,
Lots of letting go.
Letting go,
Becoming small,
Very small,
Empty,
Ready to be filled
With something new,
Truth.
TEDDY BEAR
I bought him on holiday
A little bear
Without a name.
I chose his face very carefully,
No frowns,
Only smiles
For a special person.
I imagined him
Sitting on the window sill,
Next to the cat,
Maybe on the table
Next to some flowers,
She loved flowers,
Flowers with happy faces.
Maybe on the dressing table,
Next to the three bears,
mummy.daddy and baby bear,
A new addition
A friend to smile back.
Little bear all smiles,
Can't cry,
Even on a bright day
In a hospital room.
Can't cry behind
The cards
'Get Well' they say.
Little bear
Carried in a suitcase so far,
Came to say good-bye.