Artist of the Month June 2016

Niamh Butler

Montrose, NY

I was born and raised in Montrose, New York; throughout my years there, I was consistently
inspired to capture the intriguing inhabitants and objects of the world around me in a variety of
materials, often using photographs of people far removed as reference. As a young adult entering
high school, I was accepted into the Westchester Community College Art Workshop to study
under artist and mentor Andrew Lattimore, who recommended traditional training at the Lyme
Academy College of Fine Arts in Old Lyme, Connecticut. During my subsequent studies there, I
explored a variety of media and developed ideas that influence me to this day, and created work
to be featured in various exhibitions at galleries in New York, Connecticut, and other Northeastern
states, as well as awarded the Grand Prize for VSA Arts’ “Accelerate” Competition, which
included a group exhibition debut at the Smithsonian Institution and Kennedy Center in
Washington D.C. After receiving my B.F.A. in Drawing from the Lyme Academy in 2011, I moved
to Italy to complete the Intensive Drawing Program at the Florence Academy of Art. I currently live
and work between Florence and New York, and my work is represented by the Salmagundi Club
in New York City and the Cooley Gallery in Old Lyme, Connecticut.

How and when did you start creating art?

I have been drawing and painting for as long as I can remember; it has actually been recounted
to me that as a toddler I would sneak out to draw early in the morning before anyone was awake
and then return to sleep, leaving a surprise to be found by my family shortly thereafter. As my
interest in my surroundings increased over the years of my childhood and adolescence and I was
driven to create more and more, my love for the craft increased and I became progressively more
serious about pursuing a career as an artist.

What media and genres do you work in?

Though I have experimented with numerous materials (and have very much enjoyed etching,
drawing with silverpoint, and painting with egg tempera), I have found that my preferred media
are a combination of black colored pencil, charcoal pencil, and white chalk for drawing, and oil
(on panel) for painting. These media seem to best channel my rather obsessive personality in that
they give me the control that allows me to delve into the meticulous process of creation that both
instills calm in me and imparts a style to my work.

As I grew up working from portrait photographs, I developed a strong inclination towards
photorealism that endured through my years of study and which still lingers to this day, as I often
work from my own reference photographs. However, after exploring ways of depicting specific
concepts and after gaining so much experience and knowledge while working with live models in
my studies, I now work in a more interpretive and inventive way with the subject in front of me
and from my photographs to enhance both the illusion of reality and thematic elements. In this
way, I aim to create portraits, “zoom-in” still lifes, and figurative work in more of a hyperrealist
style. Lately, I have aspired to combine this hyperrealism with surrealism by working more with
the imagination while observing a subject, and by working with many different photographs of a
subject at once.

Who or what are your influences?

Initially, in my adolescence, my inspiration to begin pushing my drawing and painting capabilities
came equally from musicians (whose portraits I would be driven to decipher and capture) and fine
artists such as M.C. Escher, Andrew Wyeth, Velazquez, Caravaggio, Monet, Frida Kahlo,
Salvador Dalí, and Chuck Close. I have certainly come to love the work of contemporary fine
artists, such as that of my mentor Andrew Lattimore and many of my other teachers and friends,
and that of hyperrealists such as Gottfried Helnwein, David Kassan, and Casey Baugh. I have
also been influenced by small man-made or natural objects, or snippets of nature scenes,
observed up-close or at a strange angle, as well as the natural beauty of the human body, and
the people in my life that are closest to me.

What was your inspiration for Victor's Contentment?

This drawing was inspired by Victor Caulfield, the subject himself, who has become something of
a celebrity and legend within the artist community here in Florence, Italy. Originally from
Melbourne, Australia, he has been travelling and sitting for portraits since he was in his 20’s, and,
as he has settled in Florence in the last few years, he has come to pose for very many of us and
has gotten to know us all quite well. He recently had the idea to organize a show of the many
paintings and sculptures created with him as the subject during his years of posing. I was thrilled
when an opportunity for me to draw him alongside one of my sculptor friends, Thor Larsen (who
intended to submit his work for the show), presented itself, and I learned very quickly through all
of Victor’s storytelling during our few sessions that he has thus far lived a long, full life of
adventures around the world, different career paths, romances, and kinships. He struck me as
both an invigorated chronicler and often a quite tired, but happy, fellow; this motivated me to
create a drawing that would capture him in a moment of calm and contentedness with his life
even as nature pulls him further into his surroundings and time continues to fly by, connoted by
the fading of the subject. I was pleasantly surprised when he asked permission to include the
drawing in his show.

Describe your creative process?

Throughout years of study, the focus on rendered tone and detail has been a constant in my
work, whether it was created from life or from my own reference photographs. When working from
my own photographs, after making initial decisions to change certain aspects of the piece while
using the photo, I will obsessively measure and re-measure specific parts, as well as focus on
creating smooth textures and transitions, to achieve accuracy in rendering the subject and to
reach a kind of meditative state. I can also obtain such a state while working from life, though the
process involves more awareness of rhythms within the subject and interpretation of the live
subject to enhance the feeling of space and atmosphere, as well as psyche and other themes in
the piece. In every case, my approach to capturing or recreating what I perceive to be a beautiful
moment makes the instance far more meaningful as I slowly bring it into existence, layer by layer.
If the subject is a person, my method also allows me to feel as if I am getting to know that person
in a way unlike any other.

What are you working on currently?

As I have a rather eclectic personality (I have many different interests that seem to manifest all at
once), my concentration regarding artwork has followed suit: I am always building several bodies
of work at once. I am still developing my concentration on still-life “zoom-in” drawings and
paintings in which the image travels in and out of focus, as well as exploring the possibilities for
depicting kinetic energy and what it symbolizes for me on a two-dimensional surface. Recently,
as with “Victor’s Contentment,” I have also been creating drawings that incorporate both the
academic aspect of working with the figure and portrait and the concept of the subject’s brief
presence in a fleeting moment, and fleeting range of time in history, in which the subject slowly
becomes one with his or her surroundings. 

What are your near/long term goals as an artist?

My aim at the moment is to focus more on landscape and portrait painting, as well as to continue
improving my technique and communication of ideas while I am building my concentrations of
work. I also hope to travel more and participate in artist residencies to experience unique places
and see how they affect my drawings and paintings. Ultimately, I will strive to make my artwork
my primary livelihood, and extend its reach so that it will hopefully induce thoughtfulness,
inspiration, and sensitivity in others.

Where can people view/purchase your work (gallery, website, etc)?

My work can be viewed on my website at nkalit.wix.com/niamh-butler-artwork, on Instagram at
niamh_butler_art, on Saatchiart.com, and at the Salmagundi Club in New York City and the
Cooley Gallery in Old Lyme, CT.