The bogs of Laois, Offaly and North Tipperary inspired a selection of paintings and sculptures by visual artist Bridget Flannery which were officially opened in the Laois Arthouse Gallery on Friday night.
‘Looking/Seeing/Making/ BOGLANDS’ is the result of the last year spent by Bridget who lives with her husband, sculptor Robert Frazier, near the Laois/Carlow border, traversing the midlands bogs, walking, painting, looking and listening.
“Landscape in all its forms, is the inspiration for my work, be it that of cityscapes, river and sea shorelines, as is music, classical, jazz and traditional. For this exhibition, ‘Boglands’, I invited uilleann piper, Niamh Morris, to play at the exhibition opening as I felt that the distinctive sound of the pipes matched the feeling of being outside in nature that one experiences out on the bogs, being out in wide space with high skies and a distinct horizon line,” Bridget said.
The renowned artist works a lot outside, using acrylics and watercolours, even making paint from the soil around her. She studied the marks of turf cutting and the rewetting of the boglands and took inspiration from Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘Bogland’, dedicated to TP Flanagan, and its line ‘We have no prairies.’
Bridget is intrigued by the expanse of Irish bogs and the cut of the horizon line. She said that she never ceases to be amazed by the wilderness that are boglands.
For these artworks, Bridget ground stone, turf, and pigments which she included in the paintings and sketch book. She sees her works as being from and by the bog. She returned to the studio and mastered the works as an ongoing series of paintings, originating in the boglands.
This exhibition also features the work by participants of the annual summer arts adult workshop which took place in Stradbally. Bridget had a fruitful week working with a group of 18 artists in the Malthouse, Main Street. She shared her knowledge and inspired the artists to achieve their own creations in a short time.
The Cork native graduated from the Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork, with an honours degree in painting and printmaking in 1981 and has been exhibiting professionally in solo and group shows throughout this country and Europe ever since. Her work is mainly focused on painting and drawing.
“Through various solo and group exhibitions, I have built up a broad range of clients who respond to the work, ask interesting questions of me and to whom I am very grateful for ongoing support,” she said.
Bridget’s work is included in many national and international corporations including The Office of Public Works; University College Cork; The Shelbourne Hotel and the National Museum of Latvia as well as many private collections worldwide. She is represented by Solomen Fine Art in Dublin.
Studio residencies include the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Co. Mayo; Cill Rialaig Artists’ Retreat, Co. Kerry and The Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Co. Monaghan.
Bridget works as a part-time learning curator at VISUAL, Carlow, and as a visiting tutor at Abbeyleix College of Further Education where she is also artist-in-residence, ArtForm, Dunmore East, and numerous Plein Air painting events throughout the country.
“It is a great joy to be around young artists finding their way in the many ways of working through visual ideas,” she said.
As part of the exhibition ‘Boglands’, she ran a four-day workshop, instigated by Laois arts office and Arts Officer, Muireann Ní Chonaill, titled ‘Looking/Seeing/Making.’
“Throughout the workshop the emphasis was on each artists’ response to the environment of The Malthouse at Stradbally which offers textural delights of all sorts, gardens and natural features and a beautiful restored building to excite the senses. Drawing, colour mixing exercises and personal projects were all part of this four-day workshop,” she said.
Among the enthusiastic workshop participants were Padraig O Flannabhra, a photographer from Nenagh who stayed in Stradbally for the duration of the course, and Louise Clarke from Lismore, Waterford, a first year student at the Crawford College of Art and Design who drove to and from Stradbally every day. Both were loud in their praise of Bridget’s work and the setting.
The exhibition runs until July 28, Tuesday and Thursday, 1pm-5pm and 5.30pm-8pm; Wednesday: 10am-1pm and 1.30pm-5pm and Saturday:10am-1pm, entry through library. Friday: 1pm-4pm, entry through Laois Arthouse.
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