Overview
PAULA POHLI
selected by Hughie O'Donoghue RA
Born in Dublin in 1955 and residing in County Wexford, Ireland, Paula Pohli works between prints and paintings, hoping to capture the natural world's beauty before much of it is destroyed. Pohli's engagement in both egg tempera painting and printmaking allows her to create elegant, technical and linear form artworks.
My themes are juxtaposed between urban and rural motifs, 'method meets modernity', depicting city, country, and wildlife. Working in lino printing I create limited edition hand-burnished linocuts, all of which are printed by hand without using a printing press and are unique and special. I exercise a lively, free brushstroke in my egg tempera paintings, which complements my graphic approach to my practice.
- Paula Pohli
It was my son Vincent who first drew my attention to Paula Pohli's work which he showed in the gallery that he ran for a number of years in Westport, Ireland. Whilst stylistically very different from my own work, I was immediately struck by the authenticity of Paula's delicate, but intensely worked pictures of the barns and sheds of the rural environment in which she worked. In the best of these paintings, there is a tension between the man made and the natural world. She has carved out for herself a small, but particular space, a pathway left by a tractor, a field sown with corn, collapsing and dilapidated barns, incongruous signs in the countryside of human presence without anyone actually being present. Images of things that, most of the time, people do not notice, but are now drawn to our attention by this artist's work.
When I thought of Paula for this exhibition opportunity, it occurred to me that her paintings could be given enough room to breathe and would benefit from the luxurious environment provided by the white cube that is the Flowers Gallery exhibition space. Paula's panels are painted in egg tempera, an ancient and unusual medium, which she prepares herself and uses with great virtuosity and individuality. This establishing of her own 'ground' so to speak is an important aspect of how a painter establishes their own identity and voice, how they distinguish themselves from all the other voices out there. These small, jewel-like paintings can have an intensity that makes them feel much larger than they in fact are.
- Hughie O'Donoghue RA
