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About Transilience
A painting was specially commissioned by the GAA Museum to commemorate the Bloody Sunday centenary and will form part of the museum’s Bloody Sunday exhibition. The painting, titled ‘Transilience’, meaning an abrupt change or leaping from one state to another, was painted by artist and Croke Park colleague David Sweeney.
Artist David Sweeney, who is a former Dublin senior hurling captain and eLearning Manager at Croke Park, shows his specially commissioned Bloody Sunday commemoration artwork, 'Transilience', at the launch of the GAA Museum’s Bloody Sunday centenary events series.
The former Dublin GAA senior hurling captain from the Ballyboden St. Enda’s works full time in Croke Park as the GAA’s eLearning Manager. As well as GAA, his passion is his art. He is largely self-taught and works mostly in oils and charcoal, focusing mainly on cityscapes and figurative work. He takes influence from a wide range of past and modern artists, but also from his life as a hurler in continually attempting to convey a certain energy in his work.
Artist David Sweeney, Director of the GAA Museum Niamh McCoy and Uachtarán Chumann Lúthchleas Gael John Horan at the launch of the GAA Museum’s Bloody Sunday centenary events series.
Sweeney describes the process of creating ‘Transilience’:
“The painting is painted in oils on board. I applied an underlayer of heavy textured gesso and scraped away the “swish” section with a palette knife to create the effect of peeling away the layer to see what lies underneath, almost like when you peel off years of wallpaper to reveal a history underneath.
I apply a thin layer of magenta in acrylic over the entire painting to give the red undertone and this remains visible in certain areas because of the heavy textured ground. The aim was to portray a certain energy of the GAA and the community but also a subtle reference to danger and Bloody Sunday within the historical section.
There is a contrast in surface finish here between the smooth area inside the swish and the rough textured area outside. There is also a contrast in colour, with the area peeled away being in monochrome and the rest in full colour implying a difference in time.
More of his works can be seen on his Instagram page
@sweeneydm