Clara McSweeney

 

The concept of the expanded field is what drives my current practice. I want my own pieces to break through the traditional ‘square’ and sprawl into the surrounding space. I am a diverse painter dipping into the fields of performance, installation and photography while also still connecting them back to paint.   I believe the expanded field of painting is a discipline which is open to other media not just traditional oil paint.  The work breaks the boundary of a square canvas and disseminates into the surrounding space. The expanded field can include a diverse range of materials like metal, ceramics, photography paper, spray guns, etc. I believe if you make art out of any material and still retain some of the principle of ‘painting’ then, the art can fall under the umbrella term of expanded painting.   I am currently exploring painting as a practice beyond the canvas, into the architecture and the space. I am working with expanded painted wall pieces, glue skins and photo and video performance.  I work a lot with different types of metal such as aluminium and stainless steel and other random metals I find. These normally work as a base to my pieces. Through experimentation I use different types of paint usually combined with other substances to give the material more texture. These can be pigmented plaster, coloured resin, pigmented latex, paint pigment mixed with wood glue and PVA glue. I undertake a lot of experimentation in my practice.
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