Selena Quilligan - Instagram Takeover

23 March 2026

Meet Selena Quilligan | Visual Artist in Residence
February - March 2026

#ArtistTakeover | Selena Quilligan | Day 1

Heyyy, I’m Selena Quilligan (@selenaaa.art) and I’ve been in the lovely Draíocht for a few weeks now for one of their spring residencies.

After graduating, I moved to Vienna to do an internship in an artist’s studio to gain experience on how to run a studio, and see what it’s like to be an artist. Coming back to Ireland and getting a space has been a dream! Having a studio now I could not be happier- a space to create and a space where I can be dedicated to my practice is amazing!!

Starting off I wanted to use the new space to get back into painting and try a semi new style- more paint and less oil pastels, to focus more on detail. I also wanted to make two paintings that could be seen as a pair. Wednesday Night and Bath Time. Both paintings are maximalist and draw inspiration from nostalgia, and girlhood to explore the bittersweetness of memory. I try to make everyday, banal activities look more exciting and fun.

#ArtistTakeover | Selena Quilligan | Day 2

This is the first time I've had access to such a large studio space completely on my own and it's been a dream to be able to spread out and work on multiple things at the same time. This has allowed me to experiment with the scale of my work since being in Draíocht, this is something I have been wanting to do for a while, however I have not had the space.

I felt that the regrowth of foliage that inhabits the empty places I visit and photograph needed to be portrayed on large canvases. I spent a lot of time building stretchers, stretching the canvas, fighting with my staple gun and then priming each one. I enjoy the craft of building and stretching canvases and it is a very important part of my process.

I have focused on the shadows of trees and weeds for the paintings and so have been experimenting with my colour palette and blurring the edges. I generally paint small and on tiles, they are quite detailed buildings and empty structures so I am excited to try painting larger and more loose with these shadows.

#ArtistTakeover | Selena Quilligan | Day 3

Painting on tile is something I have been doing for a few years now and it has been a completely different process compared to any other surface I've used before. The small scale forces me to focus on details I otherwise feel the freedom to overlook and the standard sizes allow me to play with composition. I like to take away context from the spaces/buildings leaving them almost floating, this highlights the emptiness. Once the paint has dried the tiles are then covered in a layer of resin, I started this process as purely a way of preserving the paint so it would not scratch or chip off of the tiles. The resin however does change the context of the paint on the tile and gives it a deeper look making it in my opinion more beautiful but also more hardy meaning it can be set into the grout with no fear of the painting being damaged at all, almost like preserving the beauty in an empty space.

Most of my work has been quick snapshot photos I take in my day-to-day travels of buildings and spaces I pass regularly and so I have mainly been focused on the outer shell and have felt that maybe the randomness or lack of connection to the spaces has led me to this new direction I'm hoping to take with the work. Whilst on my residency here I am developing a new body of work looking at abandoned churches and the symbols that are often the only thing left once a space like that becomes empty.

A huge thank you to the wonderful team at Draíocht and to the Fingal Arts Office for giving me this opportunity and beautiful space. My time here has been incredibly motivating and has allowed me to explore new paths in my practice.

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#ArtistTakeover | Selena Quilligan | Day 1

#ArtistTakeover | Selena Quilligan | Day 2

#ArtistTakeover | Selena Quilligan | Day 3

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