“Throughout her career as a printmaker and painter, Pauline has responded to her environment and, since moving permanently to Hydra nine years ago, she has naturally turned to her surroundings for source material and inspiration. Fruit and vegetables in the market, olive trees, flowers, the rugged landscape and the rocks which tower above Hydra town where she has her studio and plummet into the sea around the island all feature in her work. But these are touchstones. Her paintings are responses to these subjects rather than representations of them.

The prosaic and the dramatic serve as vehicles for her primary interest in colour and through colour form. The works are both sensitive and exuberant and it is this balance between strength and subtlety which distinguishes her paintings, be they large works in oil or small watercolours. Perhaps because of her background as a printmaker, Pauline has developed the use of groups of canvasses which together function as one piece. These groups create windows on the artist's sensibility and responses to the things that surround her.

Many of her works tend towards abstraction, with only a few lines acting as references to the subject matter which first inspired her. One can stand back and see fruit, trees or rocks, but also find a feast of confident marks and colours which function independently of the source material.. All her work is a celebration of her life on the island which she has come to call home." Tessa Green 2001

"When I first sailed into the harbour of Hydra I totally fell in love with the place. I found it beautiful, captivating, awe inspiring but as a painter ultimately intimidating. Where to start? Originally, my daily trips to the market place provided me with my inspiration. The explosive, vibrant displays assaulted my senses and the fruit and vegetables themselves became vehicles for my need to explore colour and form. I was a long time obsessed with this subject matter …" Pauline Keaney, 2005

Pauline's art - Individual, colourful, sensitive, humorous, sensual, spontaneous and adventurous.