ABOUT

Dana Winder is an Irish landscape painter born in Dublin in 1965. She studied History of Art at Trinity College, Dublin. During her studies, was exposed to a wide range of artistic styles, from ancient to contemporary. Her extensive time spent visiting galleries and immersing herself in these works significantly shaped her artistic development, providing her with a broad and nuanced understanding of art that would influence her career as a painter. The old masters, including Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Velázquez, instilled in her a deep appreciation for the formal traditions of painting. At the same time, her exposure to the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists—especially the brilliant use of color and motif by artists such as Gauguin, Matisse, Pissarro, Degas, Van Gogh, and Klimt—left a lasting and profound influence on her own artistic expression.

A self-taught artist, Winder began her creative journey with gouache and chalk pastels, drawn to the vivid and expansive color palette they offered. Today, her primary medium is oil on linen, which she finds ideal for its strong, textured grain. She primes the linen with a transparent gesso, allowing the inherent quality of the fabric to emerge as an integral part of her landscape compositions. Her technique often involves both palette knives and brushes, creating dynamic surfaces that resonate with the raw beauty of the natural world.

Her artistic inspiration is firmly rooted in the  surroundings of South Kerry, where she lives. The sea, beaches, coastline, rock-pools, hillsides, trees, and gardens all play a vital role in shaping her visual language. Winder often paints en plein air, capturing the essence of the landscape firsthand, and later refining these impressions in the studio. Her landscape paintings are created over the course of many months, sometimes years, and explore the ever-changing hues of the environment through the seasons. Winder describes her approach: “When I paint, I source my colours as closely as possible to the scene I’m painting. I continually match the colour on the brush to what I’m looking at. The landscape in Kerry is wonderful for colour because in winter it’s full of purple, red and ochre, and in summer, all the shades of green come out.”

Scenes from her home in Castlecove, Co. Kerry, frequently feature in her work. The rugged mountains, purple slate, the unpredictable yet captivating Atlantic coastline, and the rich bogland offer endless inspiration. This landscape, with its changing moods—from wild storms to calm stillness—infuses her paintings with a rich, dynamic energy. Through oil on canvas, she captures the soul of this western Irish landscape, creating works that resonate with both the physical and emotional landscape of the region.