Website: http://www.allysonkeehan.com/

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I have developed my professional artistic practice for over 8 years. During this time, I have exhibited both nationally and internationally, and kept abreast of the international art scene through residencies and travel.

I try to achieve an innovative approach in the genre of Still Life painting by changing the focus from the object to the background and the lighting. I use a minimal amount of Still Life objects, and use composition to focus the viewer to a tiny staple in the fabric of the background, or the small piece of masking tape - giving these insubstantial objects centre stage in painting.

The funding will be put towards sustaining my practice; studio rent, painting materials and updating equipment. Ultimately investing in my practice for the production and research of work.

Also, I wish to publish a catalogue. After my residency in Berlin last year I put together a book using an online company, however this is costly per copy. Learning from the process of doing the first one I now have the know-how to put together a catalogue cost effectively. I hope this will make my work more accessible and give permanence to some of the exhibitions accomplished to date.

My practice is realistic oil painting, specifically painting drapery. My work has developed from the genre of Still Life, but increasingly my interest in the process of the pieces, their elaborate set-ups and installations, advanced my enquiry into this genre and made me question the role of the object in the Still Life and the context that surrounds it.

My painting process is hugely impacted by the studio space through controlling and manipulating the space for each painting's set-up. The two major concerns in the work are space and light. I am interested in how changing one element in the painting set-up can affect the whole body of work, culminating in how it affects the surrounding environment. Working recently with blue and white lighting, an abstract dimension has entered this otherwise very realistic methodology.

Currently, I'm focusing on geometric shapes in the material which exaggerate the abstract quality of the paintings. Occasionally, I integrate singular objects to disrupt the uniform landscape, so textures and solid forms are juxtaposed with the subdued flow of the drapery. These objects are both concealed and revealed within the drapery. This intricate composition establishes the visual dialogue around the painting.