Petra Moll
art & art studio

Throughout my life, art – painting- creating, always has been important to me

Art and creating is the essence of life.

Originally from Hessen in Germany, I have been living and working in Ireland since 1997. My studio is based in county Offaly near Tullamore

I am a process-based mixed media painter whose practice is rooted in material exploration and transformation. My work evolves through an engagement with a diverse range of materials, including fabrics and fibres, reclaimed wood, paper clay, plasterboard, and various papers – both purchased and recycled. I incorporate a wide selection of painting media such as construction paints, acrylics, inks, pencils, pigments, and my own hand-made texture pastes.

My early artistic development was grounded in traditional approaches to landscape, architectural, and portrait painting, employing oils and watercolours. Over the past two decades, however, my practice has gradually shifted toward a more experimental, textural, and process-oriented methodology. Today, my work continues to draw from landscapes, architectural structures, and abandoned or forgotten spaces encountered in my surroundings and travels, as well as from personal memories and narrative fragments that emerge through lived experience.

Photography forms an integral part of my process; I often capture close-up images of surfaces and textures during walks or travels. These observations inform the tactile language of my paintings. Beginning on canvas, wood panel, or paper, I build up multiple layers of material intuitively, allowing the process to guide the outcome. Each work undergoes repeated cycles of construction, defacing, and reconstruction, as surfaces are scratched, torn, covered, or buried beneath new material and paint. This method embodies a dialogue between presence and absence, revelation and concealment—where stories, memories, and histories are interwoven and obscured within the material strata.

Ultimately, my practice is a continuous investigation into texture, layering materials, time, and transformation, exploring how material processes can evoke memory, decay, and renewal.