CD The Evolution of a Girl. diptych. 162 x 200
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
The Evolution of a Girl (diptych)
Oil on canvas
162 x 200cm
£8,400
C OD Canopy 120 x 120
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
Canopy
Oil on canvas
120 x 120cm
£3,800
167 x 186cm
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
Fairground
Oil on canvas
167 x 186cm
£6,200
C OD In the blue gardens 60 x 60cm
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
In the Blue Gardens
Oil on canvas
60 x 60cm
£1,800
C OD Shiny black mantle vase 51 x 51cm on board
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
Shiny Black Mantle Vase
Oil on board
51 x 51cm
£1,600
Morning Verse 75 x 100cm
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
Morning Verse (diptych)
Oil on canvas
75 x 100cm
£2,800
C OD Singing Songs 75 x 100cm
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
Singing Songs (Diptych)
Oil on canvas
75 x 100cm
£2,800
CD 51 50 x 50cmjpg
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
CD 51 Untitled
Oil on canvas
50 x 50cm
£1,600
CD 3 Blackberry Fold 120 x 120cm
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
Blackberry Fold
Oil on canvas
120 x 120cm
£3,800
C OD blue green shadows 76 x 76cm
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
Blue Green Shadows
Oil on canvas
76 x 76cm
£2,000
CD 4 if I were a blackbird 120 x 120cm
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
If I were a blackbird
Oil on canvas
120 x 120cm
£3,800
CD 3 Said the fox, that’s very pretty music oil on board
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
Said the fox, that’s very pretty music
Oil on board
41 x 41cm
£850
CD 5 the keeper 76 x 76cm
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
The Keeper
Oil on canvas
76 x 76cm
£2,000
CD 1 crow oil on board
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
Crow
Oil on board
41 x 51cm
£890
CD 2 a sprig of thyme 100 x 100cm
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
A sprig of thyme
Oil on canvas
100 x 100cm
£3,000
Sold
CD 2 winters light oil on board
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
Winter's Light
Oil on board
41 x 41cm
£850
CD 1 the small birds sang 100 x 100cmjpg
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
The Small Birds Sang
Oil on canvas
100 x 100cm
3,000
Sold
CD sweet primroses, acrylic gouache on canvas
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
Sweet Primroses
Acrylic & gouache on raw canvas
116 x 92cm
£3,000
CD He was a merry king 116 x 122cm
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
He was a Merry King
Acrylic & gouache on raw canvasc
122 x 92cm
£3,000
Pewter Moths
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
Pewter Moths
Gouache & collage on paper
59 x 41cm
£850 framed
C OD Parakeet 57 x 76cm
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
Parakeet
Gouache on handmade paper
57 x 76cm
£995 framed
Moon Night
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
Moon Night
Acrylic, ink, gouache & graphite on paper
57cm diameter
£860 framed
C OD 2 please this is my garden 59.5 x 42cm
Cornelia O'Donovan MA RCA
Please this is my garden
Oil pastel, gouache, watercolour & collage on paper
59.5 x 42cm
£750 framed
Cornelia O’Donovan plays with old folklore and poetry, but in a loose and dreamlike way. She draws particularly on tales native to the British Isles, and especially Celtic poetry and myth – from the tale of Prince Llewellyn’s grief at the sacrifice of his greyhound Gellert being, to the figurative ballads of Ellen O’Leary and lines from WB Yeats.
Her paintings are flat, stripped of all perspective or realism, their surfaces hazy and meandering like an old tale retold a thousand times. Roughly rendered yet delicately arranged, she creates patterned compositions reminiscent of old tapestries into which she plants naïve pre-Modern motifs.
‘When I was a child, my sister and I would spend days making paper cardboard houses, sometimes villages – using toothpaste lids to make light bulbs, scraps of fabric for curtains, making interior worlds. That feeling never left me and still today I work with the idea of making something from nothing. It is fascinating, entirely insular and personal, but speaks of today and time and is a female voice. The first drawings and scribbles are stiff, then after I am relaxed enough, they begin to be playful. I work without judging or editing and it seems to pour out. I find the process of setting up, layering colour down, cutting up and arranging shapes totally absorbing. The time I spend working is a complete other world, a time to reflect and map out dreams, nightmares, my fears and obsessions. The images sometimes repeat themselves, playing out different roles and interpreting the same meaning again and again – images from the stories I collect, my own and other people’s lives from film, paintings, poems and myths.’
‘Outlines of old figures, ancient heralds, esoteric herbs and familiar animals all appear like inherited objects worn smooth by the touch of innumerable hands. They retain the homespun quality of medieval rustic artworks, flowing across the canvas like a stroll through a country garden.’ James Freeman 2013
Cornelia O’Donovan trained at Royal College of Art graduating in 2006. Her work is held in private collections in the U.K. and overseas. She lives and works in London.