Petria Lenehan (b.1981), is a contemporary artist from Ireland. She is a colourist and painter, often working on a large scale, she places great emphasis on connection and emotion. With a background in both English literature and fashion design and following a move to New York with her family in 2014, she began to delve into painting. After several years developing and selling her work, Petria has returned to rural Ireland to focus on her art practice full time.
My paintings are interpretations of landscapes both internal and external, exploring overlapping themes of sensory perception, memory, and elements of the natural world. Each work is the result of a continuous cycle of intuitive unfolding, a repeated process of layering and what I call “unpainting” – where removal and reduction are often as important as the act of painting itself.
This interrogation of the relationship between my internal world and my surroundings is simultaneously a feast for the eye and an act of resistance. These vibrant explorations of feelings, struggles and perspectives on canvas remain ambiguous. Colours that dominated at first glance gradually sink into the background; sweeping gestures fall away to reveal hidden layers.
In a similar manner to the landscape, the paintings develop slowly and intuitively, driven by the power of the world around. They are landscapes that explore both the natural world that surrounds us and the fragility and strength of the human condition, an internal landscape. I work in series, bringing multiple works into dialogue with each other so they can reach an overarching sense of harmony. There is a healing energy to discover in the work and an invitation to explore the elusive interplay that exists between the spiritual realms of the human experience and the physical world we inhabit.
Petria now spends her days painting atmospheric abstract landscapes from her studio in rural Co. Wicklow, Eire, where she sells directly to collectors in Ireland and abroad.
