Why I Paint on Enamel and Glass and Why the Material Is the Work
My creative journey didn't begin with painting. It began with sculpture.
That early training shaped everything about how I now work, the way I think about materials, the way I approach a surface, the understanding that the material itself is never neutral.
Sculpture Was My First Language
I studied fine art sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art. Art school existed in its own beautifully chaotic rhythm - little structure, just time, space and the freedom to explore.
My work then was conceptual, rooted in sociology, heritage and my Irish identity. I was fascinated by how culture, history and institutions shape people and by what happens when you push back against that.
I made work exploring control, freedom and the impact of the Catholic Church on Irish society. Raw, specific and deliberately uncomfortable.
Selected past sculptural works exploring found object manipulation and performance.
In 2013 that work earned me the RSA New Contemporaries Award. I exhibited at the Scottish National Gallery on Princes Street in Edinburgh - one of the most significant galleries in Scotland.
My artwork, featured in the RSA New Contemporaries Exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh.
The Lesson That Changed Everything
Sculpture taught me one essential truth: drawing is not limited to pencils.
Drawing can be movement, sound, objects, performance, materials interacting, ideas taking physical form.
That understanding became the foundation of everything I make now.
The Virgin Mary Condom
This piece draws on the strict virginity rules of Catholic Ireland, imagining a condom that could preserve purity while avoiding mortal sin. Until 1992 condoms were scarce in Ireland, smuggled in from the North as contraband.
The work was funny, deliberate and serious underneath the humour. That combination - the conceptual rigour underneath the unexpected surface - is still what I'm after.
Returning to Art Through Painting
Ten years later, after a career in film and television within visual effects, I felt the pull back to hands-on making.
I knew traditional canvas wouldn't be enough. I needed a surface that behaved - that pushed back, that had its own opinion about what happened on it.
One day I painted on a sheet of enamel and everything clicked. The paint moved differently. It slid, swirled, resisted. It responded to water in a way canvas never could, creating organic movement, spontaneous marks, textures that couldn't be replicated or planned.
Beginning a new painting with one of my favourite colours, flowing freely in water, loose, expressive, and full of possibility.
The Alchemy of Enamel, Water & Movement
My painting process often involves water and enamel responds to it in a way canvas never could. It allows for organic movement, spontaneous marks, and a kind of alchemy where control and chance meet. It allows:
- organic movement
- spontaneous marks
- a dance between control and chance
- textures that can’t be replicated
It’s wabi-sabi in motion, impermanence, fluidity, and the beauty of the unexpected.
Why Enamel and Glass
Glass and enamel paintings hold a quiet depth, a contrast of hardness and softness layered into the surface. They shift with the light. What you see at noon is different to what you see at dusk.
The material isn't just a support for the paint. It's part of the work.
For collectors who want something unconventional, dynamic and genuinely unlike anything else, this is why the material matters.
Gorm na Peacoige - Finished and framed.
If you're drawn to original work on enamel and glass - download the portfolio and price list to explore what's available.
Download the portfolio → HERE
Explore the print series → HERE