Camille Souter

When Camille Souter’s work came to notice in the mid-1950s, commentators noted that she seemed to arrive as a fully-formed artist on the Irish art scene. Her early style drew on European Tachisme and Abstract Expressionism and her colourful, linear compositions are also reminiscent of the work of Paul Klee and Joan Miró. This early abstract style evolved and she became known for lyrical, semi-abstract landscapes. As Aidan Dunne noted: ‘Layers of colour build towards radiant, watery evocations of place. Her work is habitually intimate in scale.’ She also dealt with more difficult themes: in the 1970s she worked on a series focused on meat hanging in slaughterhouses, and images of wounded soldiers in the Kuwaiti dessert.