Oh, hi there

I’m Brioni Connolly, an artist based in Beara, West Cork who is currently focusing on illustrative ceramics. I am a graduate of the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Dublin where I studied Fine Art Painting, graduating in 2009. My practice includes both functional and sculptural works, utilising bright colours and playful imagery painted onto clay.

I got deeply into pottery after a pretty eye-opening retreat in the Netherlands in 2022 (long story) and I have been working away at my unique pieces ever since, in between looking after my pretty cool little children.

Most of my ceramic art pieces are slab built in a style that’s a bit of a throwback to the Romantic era, but with a contemporary take. The images that are painted on my little art pots and plates are taken from all aspects of contemporary life including popular programmes, great books, funny stories, beautiful nudes and old myths and legends. I don’t try to question too deeply why I choose to paint the things I do but understand that it means something that my imagination was captured by them in the first place.

The pieces I create are individual pieces of art; wonky, beautiful, perfectly imperfect.