My practice centres around drawing as a language for sensing, attending and coming into presence.

Drawing is a way of being present—an open process where body, materials and space co-create.

Marks emerge shaped by inner sensations and outer gestures. The body acts as a drawing instrument, responding to impulse and sensory experience. I observe and listen to what emerges—tracing sensations as they shift.

Working across large-scale drawing, performance and collaboration, I extend this process into space and duration. Live and collaborative conditions open up shared rhythms and responsive mark-making, where attention and movement guide what takes form.

My practice is supported by ongoing research into embodied knowledge and somatic awareness. Through this work, drawing operates as a trace of presence—felt, sensed and lived

Órla Bates is a visual artist from County Wexford, Ireland. She holds a BA in Fine Art (Printmaking) from Limerick School of Art and Design and a Higher Diploma in Art Education from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin.

Órla’s work has been selected for national, and international exhibitions. Recent shows include Sync Shift, Wexford Arts Centre, Wide Open Spaces (Wexford Arts Centre and Wexford County Council), Doorways and Windows (WexArts), RHA Annual Exhibition, Cairde Visual (Sligo), Halftone (The Library Project, Dublin), and Hang Tough Contemporary (Dublin). Internationally, her recent work has featured in Drawing Articulations: A Radical Drawing Symposium (Leeds School of Arts), Drawing in Relation (Drawing Research Network, Loughborough University, UK; curated by Arno Kramer), and Cotyledon (Cotyledon Projects, Los Angeles, CA).

Her practice has been supported by numerous awards, including the Artlink Bursary Award (2025, 2023, 2015, 2012), the Arts Council Professional Development Award (2021) and the Tyrone Guthrie Bursary Award from Wexford County Council.

She has participated in several artist residencies, including Lodestar Contemporary in France, Belgium and Limerick (2021–2024), Tyrone Guthrie Centre, and Ballinglen Arts Foundation.

As well as being an artist Órla also works as an art educator and facilitator.