Behind the Scenes with Alice O’Shea Art
I recently had the pleasure of documenting the process of the talented Alice O’Shea, as she takes a blank canvas (or plywood board in this case) and transforms it into a mind-blowing work of art. I had a spur of inspiration to photograph an artist in their studio after watching a YouTube video featuring something similar; without hesitation, I reached out to Alice (who’s art I had become a fan of) who was fully on board for a collaboration!
I went into the shoot creatively open-minded. Having not seen Alice’s studio before I wasn’t sure what environment I would be working in and what limitations and opportunities it might present which was unusual for me, I would typically head to a location or a shoot with at least some idea of what I wanted to create.
However, if there was one thing that I did have in mind going into the shoot, it was to prioritise Colour over Black & White editing. I absolutely love Black & White photographs, but in this case, it felt like a disservice to desaturate all of the magnificent colours in Alice’s pieces; having said that, there is something particularly striking about the Black & White photos, don’t you think?
The room was softly lit with light from the north-facing skylight on the overcast morning; it created a spotlight effect onto the desk where Alice works and gradual shadows throughout the room.
The natural light allows Alice to see the colours she’s working with true-to-life, without any interference from artificial light. For me, it meant not having to battle with any conflicting white balance or exposure issues - I really liked the effect of the window on the exposure and only had to play around slightly with Shadows in Lightroom.
I got to work finding creative compositions around the studio, capturing Alice’s concentration face, the gritty textures and intricate details of her art. I mostly shot on my ultra-wide 14-24mm lens, allowing me to get in really close to the art and still include the surroundings of the room; it also created some strange perspective illusions with things closer to the camera appearing much larger.
My favourite images of the shoot are of Alice using her heat gun to spread the acrylic around to form the look of waves, not only does the art look stunning, but I like the irony of having to wear protective equipment to create something that would typically be considered delicate/fragile.
We rounded off with a few more shots around the studio, capturing a couple more of Alice’s methods for creating her artwork on canvases, a natural headshot and some cute pictures of her 6-month old puppy, Freckles.
Alice has her own website dedicated to showcasing and selling her art pieces; she’s going to feature some of these images around her site for some behind-the-scenes context. If you’re looking for a bespoke piece of art then I would definitely recommend heading over to Alice’s website or social pages and checking out her work; as you can tell, she’s incredibly talented and creative and I’m sure she can create something unique you for that you’ll love!
Footnote on equipment: all photographs taken on Lumix S5 with Sigma 14-24mm F2.8 or Panasonic LUMIX S Pro 24-70mm F2.8. I was extremely pleased with how well the S5 dealt with the low light conditions, noise from ISO in the images was hardly noticeable even at ISO 6,400.
