Chinese Ink Painting 'Cooking Potates' - Origional Art Work

Making Home

Original Chinese ink paintings

Presented during Culture Night Cork at Blackpool Library, September–October 2026.

Making Home is a series of Chinese ink paintings exploring the idea of home through familiar objects, domestic spaces and everyday encounters.

The work begins with a longing for the ordinary: the overlooked objects, familiar surroundings and small rituals that quietly shape our everyday lives. It is often when life becomes difficult or uncertain that these seemingly insignificant moments reveal their importance. A repeated gesture, a familiar object or the rhythm of an everyday task can offer a sense of comfort and continuity. These small rituals become a saving grace, grounding us when other parts of life feel unsettled.

Rooted in the experience of making Ireland home, the series considers how a sense of belonging is gradually formed through daily routines, remembered surroundings and the things we gather around us. The domestic becomes a space where memory, identity and lived experience meet.

Working with Chinese ink, I explore the expressive possibilities of line, movement and the relationship between presence and absence. Through close observation of ordinary things, the paintings invite us to reconsider what we overlook, and to recognise the quiet significance of the everyday in shaping our sense of home.

Kitchens are never just functional spaces—they hold stories, routines, and the quiet acts of care that shape family life. Preparing dinner becomes a daily ritual of attention and repetition, where simple tools and ingredients take on deeper meaning.

A cast iron pot sits at the centre of this scene—heavy, enduring, and passed through time. Alongside it, a wooden chopping board carries the marks of use, where cabbage is sliced and prepared, and potatoes are cooked as a staple of everyday meals.

These gestures of cooking reflect the act of taking care of families: feeding, gathering, and maintaining a sense of home through repetition and presence. In these ordinary moments, care becomes visible, held in the weight of objects and the rhythm of preparation.

Size: approx 300 x 300 mm mounted on plywood

Material: Ink on Xuan paper