Amira McDonagh - Artist

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Amira McDonagh - Artist

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01/02/2026

This week I had the opportunity to have some invaluable feedback from Heather Peak ( thank you Heather & )

The work is expanding in a natural way :

1. Employing the visual of Lois Tonkin's Growing Around Grief theory that I am carrying through my work and applying it to my own body, 1.5metres of cotton muslin is hung on the studio wall

2. 'Shadow limb' spray painted silhouette of the artists clenched hand and arm on stretched silk, 40cms x 40cms

3. Testing the weight of tinted charcoals on cotton muslin

4. Folding cotton muslin in on itself to explore depth

5. Spraypainted silk canvases, some with tracings of the artist's limbs, all carrying the infinite grief (circle)

6. Exploring how the muslin is hung/laid - what emotions/sensitivities does it evoke? Here it hangs on the artist's display rack/browser as if the artist themselves lies on display. You can vaguely see the support device under the material

7. Panned out shot of the display browser, the material is stretched to it's limits and tightly tucked under the white mount board

Every decision and testing has meaning, and I'm really enjoying seeing the work develop.

01/01/2026

...it's been a while.

2025 was a wild ride - for the most part I haven't been making, mostly trying to make things happen (a lot of applications - 17 of which were rejected - I think it's important to acknowledge the hard work that goes on behind the scenes and share that it's not all flashy grid posts)

Any who, I've been trying to make a specific piece of work since March 2024 and this year it's not only happening, but I'll be showing it in April.

The work is titled 'Chronic' and records lived daily instances and areas of chronic pain, these are some of my initial exploratory drawings, which have me excited to keep exploring how I will present this work later this year in Belfast.

12/10/2025

Back in February this year, I took part in ; a global art experiment based on the old telephone game where one person whispers into the ear of the person next to them and a message is spread and changed as it goes around the circle, the Telephone art project begins with a single work of art which is then assigned to be interpreted into a different medium by various artists.

Telephone features 1,395 works from artists in 930 cities in 65 countries, all originating from the one master art piece. My small painting 'Horizon' is included as one of only two works from artists in Ireland.

Massive thanks to Nathan Langston and all the team involved in this 2 year mammoth task of co-ordinating and connecting all of the artworks, you can view all of the interconnected beauty at https://telephonegame.art/ viewing the chain of interpretations by which artist and where in the world each artist is based. This online exhibition is published in perpituity and launched on 10th October.

To read about how I interpreted the gorgeous work of .vogler you can head straight to my work 'Horizon' here : https://telephonegame.art/game/artists/amira-mcdonagh

05/10/2025

The 4th Royale Arcade Academy exhibition opened at on Thursday evening and my little piece 'Territories' is part of another spectacularly curated show by .art

Genuinely one of my favourite shows of the year and probably one of the busiest (I'm guessing) because despite the storm there was a queue waiting to get a sneak peek inside

I need to get back myself to have a better look - it runs until 30th October, just drop the folks at Arcade a DM to visit.

Extra thanks to my pal VM for snapping me in front of my work 🫶🏻✨️

26/09/2025

'Conditional Love'
Layered Photograph
2025
©Amira McDonagh

21/09/2025

My work is multi layered: at first it may look pretty and comfortable to stand in front of but each piece is deceptively decorative.

The work *should* speak for itself is the unspoken presumption, but sometimes that's unfair and inaccessible to those who want to understand it or enjoy it, some might even say it's elitest.

It's not easy being vulnerable or seeing someone's vulnerability and the explosive colour that I use in my work allows an element of safety in enabling people to just enjoy a pretty work if that's all they want.

I haven't been able to paint as much as I would have liked in the last almost 2 years - so my work has ventured down paths of other mediums.

I'll be sharing some experimental works I have been making since 2024 - with the hope that a project I've been wanting to make since March 2024 unfolds in the coming months.

I'm interested in the psychology of colour or lack there of and its impact on a viewer. This is very different - the monochromatic quality takes away the comfort blanket - I'll let you decide.

'Her Chair'
Layered Photograph
2024
© Amira McDonagh

01/07/2025

'Pappírstrana'

Born from a sketch completed in 2015. Paper crane made by a stranger, photographed by me, exhibited in Reykjavik back then.

Reimagined now.

Mixed media on cradled wooden board.
36cms x 28cms.

21/06/2025

TOMORROW!

You will find me and 39 other creative folk, the sunflower bar and some fab food offerings pulling up to Vault Artist Studios' new building in the city centre and selling all kinds of wonderful things from the car park!

Catch my lowest prices ever (and not to be repeated) from 12 - 5pm at 39 Corporation Street, there's also free parking in the city on a Sunday what's not to love?!

04/06/2025

I'm not very good at keeping a regular sketchbook. I'm a constant observer who is always grabbing images from around me to inform my work and thinking of how to tweak works, what to do next and staring at pieces until I can see it - so my mind is my sketchbook.

Part of me feels that if I put my work into a book, it might look better in there and never as good anywhere else.

I do like to keep things though and my camera roll is filled with things I've seen around me as well as progress shots of things I'm doing. Because of that, I would say that I'm an instinctive landscape painter, just maybe not in the way people expect, but in my way - these are my landscapes.

Each painting has a multi layered story and I wanted to share some of the process and inspirations that goes into each.

Where my work is now may come as a surprise but the middle slide shows how the palette, subject and circular form have been seeping into each new work over the past few years.

I'm making work now that is taking me back to the *very* start of my art career when at 17 I made a painting of Tory Island that would win me a prize and a place on what was my essentially my first residency. It's the main image in the last slide. I had completely forgotten about it until 2021 when I found it amongst my grandmothers belongings. It's 20 years old now and I'm excited to revisit the memories and re-interpret that work.

Address

Northern
Northern

Website

http://www.amiramcdonagh.com/

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