Swanzy Land - the Spring/Summer 22 collection pays homage to the late pioneering modernist artist Mary Swanzy, an irish landscape and genre artist. Her work involved many different styles, each of which she interpreted and transformed in her own way. Inspired by the elements of cubism, fauvism and futurism in her work, Sharon embodied these styles by designing and creating with bold colours, cut-outs and geometric shaping.
Swanzy travelled extensively and painted on every journey. One voyage that is unique in Irish art is her time spent in Hawaii. There is no previous record of an Irish artist undertaking such a journey and returning to exhibit the results. Sharon was particularly drawn to the paintings she created in Hawaii, which are bursting with the multiple colours and textures of the Hawaiian rainforests.
The raw canvas shows through in some of these paintings, and this as well as its sustainability inspired the use Ramie as a fabric in this collection. The texture of ramie looks almost like a blank canvas. Sharon painted directly onto the fabric by hand for the bodice of the painted dress. She also used ramie as one of the fabrics in the cubist dress. The dense nature of the greenery inspired Sharon to create the jungle skirt, which can be ruched in several areas by a drawstring to create an effect similar to the canopy of the tropical broadleaf forestry depicted in her work.
