Esther O’Kelly: Fieldwork
Ranelagh Arts

Esther O’Kelly presents her studio practice at Ranelagh Arts with a selection of recent paintings and works in progress. Rooted in belonging, storytelling, and embodied experience, her landscapes explore disorientation, uncertainty, and discovery.

On Saturday 27 September, 2–4pm, O’Kelly will lead an artist talk and a walking sketchbook session through Ranelagh Gardens. Drawing from her instinctive, movement-based sketchbook practice, she invites participants into a process of getting lost—of letting go of the map to rediscover place, memory, and meaning through paint.

Artist Statement

My practice explores disorientation, uncertainty, and discovery. The work draws on the idea of the stray sod—a hidden place in the landscape said to cause sudden confusion in those who step upon it. This concept, where the known suddenly becomes unknown, resonates deeply with my process, which embraces getting lost as a method of discovery.

Through gestural mark making and instinctive drawing, I construct terrains that are layered, fragmentary, and strange. This approach allows me to break with traditional composition and create space for play, contradiction, and joy. I am drawn to landscapes that blur into dreamlike spaces, where boundaries between interior and exterior, order and disorder, begin to dissolve.

I see my practice as unfolding across three interrelated spaces in painting: the external landscape, the internal or dreaming space, and the material surface of the painting itself.

Fieldwork is an essential part of my process. It often involves moving quickly through a landscape, drawing instinctively in response to my surroundings. These studies are not about accuracy but about energy, rhythm, and form. Working with limited media, I explore texture and shape. My sketchbooks are wild—filled with dry marks, scribbles, and banter. It is from this raw material that my paintings grow.