In one area of Christine O’Sullivan’s home based studio sits an Apple laptop computer surrounded by an array of pencils, books, cuttings and sketches of different sizes where she captures a never-ending stream of ideas which flow from her mind.
O’Sullivan is an Oxfordshire based artist whose work is best classified as abstract. She is concerned with colour and space and the relationship between the two: the structured and unstructured. Working in series she “experiments with a changing palette and pushing one colour above others”.
This interest is expressed vividly in the many paintings on canvas that adorn her studio walls. Whilst studying them I was immediaitely struck by the reconciliation of the opposing coloured shapes and their seperation by a series of visually energetic vertical stripes. Her work could possibly be considered to be a blend of two of Americas greatest abstract expressionist painters, Ellsworth Kelly - the juxtaposition of bold colors and Barnett Newman - the characteristic lines. Indeed, like Newman the linear elements, or 'zips' are made by masking off areas of the canvas with tape, which is then removed at some point during the painting process.
Since graduating in 1998 from De Montfort University with a BA in Fine Art & History of Art, O’Sullivan has continued to develop her abstract vocabulary. She exhibits widely across Oxfordshire and regionally and her paintings are in collections around the world.
