“I only went out for a walk, but decided to stay until sundown, for going out was in fact going in” (John Muir)

Lena Willryd is a Dublin based visual artist and MFA graduate from NCAD (2020). She combines her job as library assistant in Edward Murphy Library (NCAD) with working from her studio at The Blue Door Gallery and Studios in Drumcondra.

Though primarily a painter, in her practice she often “paints” with alternative mediums, such as light reflections, projections and textiles.

She is interested in transmuting her emotional response to the intangible, ethereal qualities she senses in nature, and her surroundings, into contemplative, sensory experiences while also exploring disembodiment and attachments with her origins.

In her current work she is using the traditional Swedish “rya” technique, a long-piled hand-tufting and sewing technique that her mother taught her when she was a child. Working with this method she feels a strong, close connection with her mother and the land where she was born.

Her main artistic influences are the American expressionists, colour field artist Helen Frankenthaler and Swedish painter Andreas Eriksson.

Her work is in the Irish state collection and several Irish embassies, as well as private collections worldwide.