DAS Member Interview - Margaret Toomey

Margaret, how did you become interested in painting?

I have always been interested in paint/painting and all things creative. I’m a visual learner. One of my first memories as a child is when I noticed a still life painting of pots and jugs in my neighbour’s house which was a tonal study in yellow and green.

I then decided that I can do whatever I want when it comes to painting. My Art Teacher Noeleen Frain showed her paintings in class while I was in Secondary School. She helped me to apply for Art College and the seed was sown! Now, I paint for me, it’s my time to meditate.

Do you have any art training?

Yes. As a teenager, I attended George Collie’s studio in Schoolhouse Lane, Dublin. There I sketched plaster casts of different sections of the head and face before drawing the live model. At 17 in the National College of Art and Design, I completed Pre-Diploma, now called Core Studies. I graduated in Fashion and Textiles -I wanted a job after college. I worked in Cassidy Fabrics in Dun Laoighaire for 2 years and then went back to NCAD for the Art and Design Teachers Qualification.

After retiring from 34 years of Secondary School Art Teaching, I now attend the Schoolhouse for Art in Enniskerry where Brenda Malley tutors Landscape and Seascapes in Oil.

What other artists do you enjoy?

I enjoy paintings from the Old Masters to the present day. Although I’m not so keen on Surrealism or Abstract Expressionism.

I’m watching a lot of artists on social media at the moment. There are about twenty that excite me. They are mostly Irish, European and American. Their common theme is a sense of place Landscape, Seascapes, and Interiors.

Does creativity run in the family?

I didn’t think about this until you asked!

My father was a keen photographer. He exhibited with the Dublin Camera Club. He converted the bathroom into a dark room for a while, and, then in another area off the kitchen.

My mother studied ‘Window Dressing’ in Parnel Square while she worked for Harper’s Boutique in Grafton Street and Henry Street before she got married. We had a knitting and sewing machine at home. Both of my parents made most of our clothes.

My aunt made my communion dress from my mother’s wedding dress. Nothing was wasted!

My cousins went to a drawing class, and, I went too – it turned out to be George Collie’s Studio.

Can you describe your artistic process?

I take photos everywhere I go. When I have decided what image/s I’m working from, I start with the palette knife over an acrylic coloured ground, I block in the main areas all over the canvas like patchwork. This is one of the best parts of painting as I love the buttery thick oil paint. I use linseed oil as my thinner/cleaner of brushes. If there is a specific object to be included, I quickly draw it in roughly with a medium sized brush. As I’m covering the canvas, I’m mixing colours with the knife directly onto the canvas, and, on my palette.

The next time I paint, I refine, play, and, manipulate the paint on the surface. I address changes, layer up several times with light and dark effects, and details, with medium and small brushes/palette knives. My colour palette almost always includes cerulean blue, sap green, indigo, lemon yellow, vandyke brown, and white. I’m not trying to copy the photo/s. I use them as a reference and don’t get too caught up in colour matching either.

I just go with what I feel like at the time, and, just let it flow! I don’t worry much about how it turns out, but I refine as I go. I always have a backlog of ideas to explore. I also don’t worry about meaning/message. It’s all about what I see!

I have tried some Plein Air Painting. I like that too, it’s a different approach. I explore different materials, watercolour and charcoal.

Tell us about your medium and why you chose it?

Oil Painting is my favourite medium. It’s versatile. You can create every effect when you have the skill, paint over, manipulate....

I have worked with fabrics and threads. I was involved with the Embroidery Designer Group after I left college.

As a Secondary Teacher, my class focused on embroidery, lino printing, calligraphy, puppet making, paper mache, clay sculpture. So now, I can do exactly what I want. Oil painting gives me the freedom to paint everything/anything.

Was it always painting or did you have another pursuit/job/career?

I have always likes to paint and sketch. It was only when I retired that I began to paint in oils.

As a teenager, I painted in watercolour. At 12 years old, I wrote on my first day in Art Class in Secondary School that the reason I chose Art, was, I could so that ‘I could make clothes and then oil paint’.

I represented the school in the Cassidy Fabrics ‘ Make and Model’. As an Art Teacher I developed a range of skills.

I designed and made scenery with the students for the school musicals, made costumes, stage management, props, poster design competitions, displays of artwork, exhibitions. I thaught Social Personal and Health Education, Horticulture, Civic, Social and Political Education. I was a Year Head and Board of Management member. Green Schools Coordinator, Evening Study Coordinator, and In-House Exam Coordinator.

Department of Education Examiner of State Exams and input into State Exam Questions.

What inspires you to paint?

What’s around me. What’s easy, accessable, my local area. Anything that ‘catches my eye’. The natural environment is my interest. Even as a child, I loved when we went for a Sunday Drive in the Dublin Mountains, it was the Irish light on the landscape, the view, the colours and textures, trees, heather, rocks relaxed me.

Now, when I go for a stroll, I want to look and see what is around me. I get caught up in nature at my feet, and, the landscape or seascape in the distance. The scene before me when I stop to take in the view as it unfolds and spreads out from me and helps me to lose myself.

I am not concerned with myself, I’m so enjoying what I see, I am content. I don’t include myself or others in my paintings because what I see completely fills my space and brings me calm.

What does a perfect day painting look like for you?

I’ve been for a walk, so I’m relaxed. It’s late afternoon or early evening. I have 2 or 3 hours to get into my shed to paint. All the better if on the following day, I can do the same.

Any DAS memories?

The warm welcome of fellow artists. I am a new member, so, submitting samples of my work and explaining my paintings helped me to reflect and take stock of what my art is about. The buzz of the opening of the first group painting exhibition to which my paintings have been accepted at the spacious high vaulted ceiling of Dalkey Castle.

Any daily rituals before painting?

Painting is my ‘space’, ‘my time’, ‘escape from the world’.

I have completed the essentials of life.

I take photos everywhere I go. Usually I will have looked at my photos and decide what group of images interest me or I feel that I have a connection to. I buy materials every few weeks, so, I always have a stock of wood panels or canvases in different sizes to choose from. I then decided size and shape to suit what I might paint.

I spend time everyday looking at what other artists are doing as they post online. This all helps me to solidify what I’m doing (their colours and shapes are in the back of my mind).

When I am finished painting for the day, I make sure that I can see what I have done from my kitchen sink window, so, I can mull over it from a distance.