Anthony Ivan Wigglesworth, (born 1979, Ireland)
M.Phil. Masters in Music and Media Technologies, 1st class honors.
Trinity College, Dublin 2011-2013.
Dublin-based artist Anthony Wigglesworth seeks to capture the ethereal through an exploration of texture, movement and effects of spatial illusion. His works are inspired by flora, fauna and designs that make up his everyday environment, they aim to present a celebration of abstraction in its pure form rather than a representation of the natural world. Interested in exploring the properties of paint as an artistic device, his practice involves a process of creation and destruction through layering and manipulating the paint with brushes, palette knives and large scrapers. He first creates an under layer of paint, then steadily layers surface upon surface, merging multiple colors together and continuously building up various dimensions of paint. Through this process, the artist creates dynamic works integrating vivid and bright colors, often employing silver, gold and pewter paints to create light within the pieces themselves.
‘I draw most of my inspiration from the sea and the Irish landscape. Growing up near the coastal town of Dun Laoghaire left a fondness in me for the ocean. Watching the weather systems rolling across the water in Dublin Bay, with the light constantly changing serves as inspiration for my work. I can’t help but see a similarity between these rolling weather systems and the techniques I utilize in my painting’.
‘I take a lot of walks on the seafront, and I like to photograph sunrise’s from the Dun Laoghaire west pier. The pinks and the oranges in the photos then serve as color inspiration for new artworks. The light in Dun laoghaire is particularly amazing. From the pier I’ve seen Dublin Bay look like a floating sea of silver, a night sky over the city that was purple and a sunrise with a vignette of storm clouds, the blacks, silver, oranges and gold all dancing as they reflect off the sea. It would difficult not to be inspired’.