Kim Roberts is a mixed media artist living on the shores of Cork Harbour. In 2016 she received an honours degree in Fine Art from Crawford College of Art & Design in Cork and since then has exhibited in both private and public venues throughout Ireland and Europe.

In January 2019 The National Gallery of Ireland acquired one of her pieces for their permanent collection, a huge honour and accolade for the artist.

“For three years we lived in Greece, the northern city of Thessaloniki was home, a city imbued with stories and history. I lived and worked among these friendly and creative people and reluctantly left in October 2020 realising that a piece of my heart would always belong to Greece.”

In Thessaloniki, the artist shared her time between her home studio and Les Yper Yper, an artists’ collective in the city.

In her own words she tells us:

’Feeling energised and excited by this vibrant colourful city, I saw a link between my own Celtic heritage and Greek Mythology, whose lore are both filled with conflict, romance, magic and mystery. I found myself inspired in a whole new way.

As a mixed media artist I spent a lot of time in Thessaloniki gathering detritus and other materials from builders’ skips and recycling bins around the city which I use as substrates and elements within my work. The found material and objects becoming integral to the piece, adding energy and meaning. Each piece tells its own story often acting as a contemporary “memento mori”, evoking traces of existence and echoing the fragility of life.’

Since returning to Ireland the artist has built a studio and works primarily in this sanctuary hidden in a wooded glade by the sea.

Today, her primary inspiration is absorbed from the environment she is immersed in. The essence and spirit of the natural woodland and seaside setting of her studio in Currabinny. The sea and the treasures it throws up on to its beaches and shores and the woodland which is filled with wildlife and magic.

She spends a lot of time beach combing and gathering waste materials from boatyards around the harbour. She has a visceral response to the shape, the colour and the texture of these found objects. A rust eaten shackle, a lone bright orange buoy nestling in the seaweed, the skeleton of a fish, shattered timbers from the hull of a wreck, worn and weather beaten sea walls, these all fuel her passion to create evocative, vibrant work. However the experience of living in Greece with its rich history and culture, ancient artefacts and antiquities and the intensity of colour stimulated by the ambient light are embedded in her sub conscious and seem to always bleed into the work.

‘I work fast and furious, intuitively and from the sub conscious. The pieces are created by multi layering of paint which are subsequently subjected to change through expressive attacks on the surface. The results are mainly abstract, inviting the viewers to explore the piece and let themselves dive into the forms and extract their own personal narrative.’

Kim Roberts is a member of Visual Arts Ireland, Cork Printmakers, and the Lavitt Gallery, Cork.