About Eileen Kennedy
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Working in the ancient media of egg tempera and silverpoint, I create works that marry my two loves: drawing and storytelling. Always a compulsive mark maker, I make thousands of marks to build form, tone and atmosphere. Some of my narratives come from memory or dreams. Others appear in my mind with no clue to their origin. I accept them as gifts. Most recently, these seem to explore the intersection of humans and the natural world.
Even though the ideas for my works arrive in a flash of insight, their execution is far from spontaneous. I begin with many drawings, sketches, and doodles. Sometimes I hire models to pose. I may draw them from life or from photographs I take. Other times I create figures out of my head. Excluding compositional studies, an 18 x 24" silverpoint drawing can take a month or more to complete. Egg tempera paintings of the same size take about 5 months, assuming I can put in 25 to 30 hours per week in the studio.
At some point along the way, I have to relinquish control and trust the process. Frequently, when a piece is about three quarters complete, I find myself in a panic--certain that all is lost. I take a deep breath and keep going. More layers. Because my use of color is intuitive, I never really know where the paint will take me and am frequently surprised at the end. I hope you will be, too.