Welcome

You sometimes hear an artist say they find art therapeutic and when you visit Eileen Kennedy's intimate little studio, it's easy to see why! Eileen, who is married to local music legend, James Kennedy, and has two children, Clare and Ciaran, has a delightful studio behind her house in Ashgrove in Tralee. Access to the studio is by way of a meticulously kept garden that features statues of the Buddha and is soothing to the senses from the first moment of entry.

"Before we built the studio, I used to paint in an upstairs bedroom and when I was preparing the dinner I'd move the easel down to the kitchen and place it next to the cooker," laughs Eileen, "so it's nice to have a space that's dedicated to Art."

Eileen, who is from Tralee originally, studied art at Crawford School of Art and Design where she was awarded Student of the Year by the Cork Arts Society. She is a born painter, sculptor and print-maker and finds inspiration in life but also in the tactile interaction with the materials she uses. In fact one of her earliest memories is of asking her grandfather to show her how to paint at the extraordinarily young age of two! "I love the freedom and sense of discovery every time I create something," she says, "and it's a feeling that I have loved for as long as I can remember."

And while Eileen works primarily from her painting studio at home she also travels to Cork Printmakers on a regular basis. Her work has been shown extensively in Ireland and she has exhibited in Belgium, China and right across the U.S.

One exhibition currently running in America was organised by Jimmy Deenihan, TD for Kerry North. The exhibition, titled, A Different Land: Irish Bogland Interpretations, opened in New York in March of this year at Magnan Projects and features Eileen's print, Windblown Cotton, as well as work from another 26 Irish artists. "Jimmy has been a huge help to me and many other Kerry artists," said Eileen, "not just for this but for all the work he puts into the annual art exhibition in Finuge, during The Sean McCarthy Weekend, and much more besides."

Another two of Eileen's prints were selected for a touring exhibition in the U.S., Prints from Ireland, and, as you read this, are on route to Hawaii!

Luckily, though, you won't have to go to Hawaii to view her prints, as an exhibition of her work will go on display at the new Samhlaiocht Gallery on Thursday, July 10th. The exhibition will be opened by Jimmy Deenihan. Eileen is no stranger to Samhlaiocht having exhibited at the gallery in 2004.

Paper Pool of Love. Watercolour by Eileen Kennedy

"Eileen's last show was a sell-out success," said Trish Thompson, Gallery Coordinator of Samhlaiocht, "and we're delighted to have her back for another exhibition. Her prints flow with an energy that mirrors life and while some are imbued with painterly vigour that belie the formal structure of the printmaking process others are implicitly adherent to the process. It's a wonderful combination and the work is both free flowing and immediate, yet, at the same time, structured and considered."

Eileen elaborates saying, "I relate to Art that is honest and real and reveals life with all its perfections and flaws. There is a beauty and rawness to life and Nature that I seek to express in my work."

This beauty and rawness resonates with the viewer and is surely, at least, partly responsible for Eileen's success to date. Not only are her exhibitions successes but her work features in a wide range of privately held Art Collections including those of AIB, Kerry County Council and Kerry Education Service while she has also been short-listed to design collectors' coins for the Central Bank.

Success aside, you get the feeling that if all sales were to dry up tomorrow Eileen would still paint and print in her little studio. "Sometimes when I feel exhausted that exhaustion is equally evident in the work and results in pieces that are softer and, somehow, more human," she says.

And it's that honesty, that willingness to put herself into her work, which makes it so appealing both to Eileen as an artist and to the viewer.

The exhibition opens on Thursday, July 10th, and runs until Friday, August 1st, in the new Samhlaiocht Gallery which is located in the Old Presbytery on Lower Castle Street in the heart of Tralee. The Gallery is open from 10 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, is free to visit and all are welcome.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to http://www.samhlaiocht.com/

The exhibition will include Work from Rebecca Murphy, Kerry Native and Art Competition Winner, pictured above.

With past winners including everyone from TD's to world renowned artists, the Texaco Children's Art Competition has played an influential role in the artistic lives of children in Ireland for fifty four years. To celebrate this achievement, Samhlaiocht, Kerry's premiere Arts Organisation is exhibiting a selection of the winning entries from the latest Competition.

"The Texaco Children's Art Competition has been encouraging artistic talent in Children for over half a century," said Jason O' Mahony, Artistic Director of Samhlaiocht. "When you look at a list of past winners and the effect that winning the Competition had on their lives it's absolutely unbelievable! The spirit of the Competition is very much in keeping with the ethos of Samhlaiocht, to encourage Children to enjoy, create and participate in the Arts."

Ruairi Quinn TD, a prize winner of the Texaco Children's Art Competition at the time of the Suez Crisis, said, "I won my first Texaco prize at the age of 10. Then I was doing it (art) without realising I was good at it. By the time I was a teenager it was central to my life. I painted constantly, right through until I was about 27 or 28."

"I was fortunate enough to get encouragement from that first award. I won a couple of other awards at different age categories," he added. "It had a profound effect on my life and what I subsequently did."

The Competition is having an equally influential effect on current day winners. Rebecca Murphy, who hails from Killarney is 8 year old and was a First Prize Winner in this year's Competition with a wonderful painting called, The Hungry Toucan.

"I feel like the luckiest girl in Ireland," laughed Rebecca, "it's a great feeling to win." When asked about her inspiration for the painting, she says, "I love animals and birds. I got a book about the rainforest and decided to paint a toucan and now budgies and toucans are my favorite birds or animals."

"We were delighted and very proud of Rebecca that she won," said Maire Murphy, Rebecca's mom, a Killarney native. "We were humbled by the standard of work that we saw at the Awards Ceremony. Winning the prize has had an immensely positive effect on her and given her fantastic confidence."

Maire, who is a teacher in Killarney and husband Sean, who owns Lord Kenmare's Restaurant, felt becoming part of a winning group of talented Children was central to Rebecca's growing confidence. Maire was also quick to heap praise on Texaco for their "amazing generosity" while saying that all the prize winners were "treated like royalty."

With over thirty thousand entries a year, the Competition is a breeding ground for young artists, and many past winners have gone on to have successful careers in Art. When asked to describe the impact the Competition had on her career, renowned artist and former winner, Bernadette Madden, said, it was "a wonderful childhood experience. A magical memory. Children's Art sowed a seed which encouraged me to develop my artistic talents at a very young age."

Artist Marie Connole, another past winner, is equally full of praise for the Competition saying, "I entered the Competition often during my teenage years and it was very influential in my decision to continue with art as a career."

Their memory of the Competition and of the influence which it had in helping to develop their careers in art is typical of past winners' feelings. Such warm memories mirror the regard which Kerry's Artistic community has for Samhlaiocht. And given the success of both Samhlaiocht and Texaco in promoting the love of Art in children it would be difficult to bet against Rebecca and this year's other winners having equally fond memories and maybe even equally successful careers in Art!

The exhibition of selected artwork from the 54th Texaco Children's Art Competition opens in the new Samhlaiocht Gallery which is located in the Old Presbytery on Lower Castle Street in the heart of Tralee on Thursday, 12th of June, and runs through to Wednesday, July 2nd. The Gallery is open from 10 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, is free to visit and all are welcome.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to http://www.samhlaiocht.com/
For more information on the Texaco Art Competition please log onto http://www.texacochildrensart.com/

Exhibition from Up and Coming Kerry Artists to open on Thursday, May 15th

An exhibition of artwork from two up and coming Kerry artists will go on display at the new Samhlaiocht Gallery on Thursday, May 15th. The exhibition features work by Muiriosa Murphy and Seamus McDonnell.

Muiriosa, who hails from Rathmore originally, is a born painter, sculptor and print-maker and finds inspiration in life but also in the tactile interaction with the materials she uses. "I love the freedom and sense of discovery every time I create something," she says.

Muiriosa's sculptures have an almost iconic look to them, and would not seem entirely out of place in a museum. "Well, I think that people today may feel a sense of alienation to the world around them. It's only in the most recent times, in an evolutionary sense, that humans have surrounded themselves with masses of concrete and metal, and so they can, at times, feel alienated from their surroundings," she says.

There is a certain timelessness about her sculpture, a feeling of connectivity to history. "I think that art should cross boundaries and be relevant irrespective of culture and time," she explains, quickly adding with a laugh, "not that I've achieved that just yet!"

Seamus McDonnell, who grew up in Ballymacelligott, is quite a fan of Muiriosa's work and believes she reaches the lofty targets she sets for art. "I think her work is excellent and I'm delighted to have an opportunity to exhibit work in the same gallery."

In fact the two artists are quick to complement each other and the opportunity afforded them by Samhlaiocht. "It's fantastic to have an opportunity to show work and we're really thankful to Samhlaiocht for giving us the opportunity," said Seamus.

Seamus has been sketching and drawing all his life before suddenly taking up oil painting eight years ago. "Well, I've always been good at art, and had a very strong interest in sketching, but I had a very vivid dream about a painting and just had to create the painting and luckily it turned out well!"

In fact this personal approach and connection to art is something that both artists are quite comfortable with, "I find I use Art almost as a therapeutic exercise," says Seamus, who works in Tralee General Hospital and Muiriosa quickly agrees. "Absolutely, it goes back to what I was saying about alienation - Art helps me to make sense of what's going on inside me while also helping me make sense of what's going on with other people."

This inter-connectivity is also reflected in the titles which the artists have chosen for their exhibition; Seamus is calling his collection 'Presence', while Muiriosa's is titled 'The Other'. One would be forgiven for thinking that the Artists had been friends for a long time, though this is not quite true.

Muiriosa submitted work for Samhlaiocht's annual Salon De Chiarrai exhibition which takes place late every year, while Seamus had popped into the Samhlaiocht Gallery with a collection of works sometime before. Trish Thompson, Visual Art Coordinator with Samhlaiocht, felt that the work would complement each other and set about organizing an exhibition and then fate took a hand. The two artists bumped into each other at Killarney Rotary Club proving it's a small world after all, or at the least a small county!

"It's fantastic to see such wonderful artists come together and have such respect for one another's work," said Trish, "we're just happy that we can accommodate the artistic process in some small way."

The exhibition will run until the 6th of June in the new Samhlaiocht Gallery which is located in the Old Presbytery on Lower Castle Street in the heart of Tralee. The Gallery is open from 10 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, is free to visit and all are welcome.

Boreens, Curteens and Cnuceens to open on Thursday, April 17th

An exhibition of artwork titled, Boreens, Curteens and Cnuceens, will go on display at the new Samhlaiocht Gallery on Thursday 17th April. The exhibition features work by four Kerry Based Artists, Roger Cattermole, Donal Stack, Rosemary Purcell and Antoinette O'Regan and all the work on display will focus on the beautiful Kerry landscape.

"Returning to West Kerry had been a recurring dream for me," said Antoinette O'Regan one of the four artists featured in the exhibition. "Now that my dream is realized, my surroundings are both my inspiration and an ongoing challenge." Antoinette, who was a student at Limerick College of Art has exhibited widely throughout Ireland and spent time at the prestigious Ciall Rialig Art Studios in Ballinskelligs. "The various and widely changing moods of Kerry create a romantic and intense atmosphere for the viewer," said Antoinette, an atmosphere she skillfully captures in her work.

Rosemary Purcell, winner of the Beara Arts award in 2003, lives and works in the Kenmare area of South Kerry. "I take my inspiration from the natural beauty that surrounds me," said Rosemary. "South Kerry is known for its wild and dramatic scenery, but it is its subtle changes in light and colour that influences my artwork, my work is an attempt to capture this ever changing environment."

Rosemary fully captures the rich and dramatic beauty of the South Kerry landscape and her work elicits a visceral response. "Well maybe that's because even though you can't eat the scenery but by gentle osmosis it does influence who we are," adds Rosemary. That influence is plain to see.

In contrast to the wild beauty of south Kerry landscape captured by Rosemary, Donal Stack, who graduated from Crawford Municipal College of Art in 1986, focuses on the tamer and more cultivated lasdscapes of North Kerry and, in particular, on the farmlands. "This is a landscape that has been tamed and cultivated by generations of hardworking and resourceful farming families, each leaving its mark, whether in the fields' structures, in the houses and farm buildings or in the actual animals and livestock that live on the land," said Donal.

"It is not a dramatic landscape but more a pastoral landscape. Its drama is in the detail. It is a transforming landscape; the vernacular architecture is being replaced by modern homes and hitech farm buildings. This is an inevitable process as was the replacing of stone farm buildings with corrugated iron sheds."

Roger Cattermole was born and raised in the UK. He was a student of the Harrow school of Art and has successfully exhibited throughout Ireland and England. In 1996 he relocated to County Kerry and has dedicated his time to professional painting. The move proved to be successful one as the landscape and culture of Kerry has had a profound influence on his painting and philosophical outlook. "Each landscape has its own particular and unique characteristic," said Roger, "in this work I aspire to capture the nature and mystery of the land."

All four artists through a variety of differing techniques and styles capture the indescribable beauty of Kerry. The exhibition is not only for art lovers but for everyone that has every looked at a Kerry landscape and been inspired.

The exhibition will run until the 9th of May in the new Samhlaiocht Gallery, which is located in the Old Presbytery on Lower Castle Street in the heart of Tralee. The Gallery is open from 10 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, is free to visit and all are welcome.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to www.samhlaiocht.com

Artist Richard Hearns returned home in the New Year after a two month residency and solo show in Thailand.

Since his return to his native Ireland he has taken part in a group exhibition in Dublin and is now in the midst of preparing a body of work for a long awaited second solo Exhibition in Kenmare.

The Gallery in The Sheen Falls Lodge will be hosting this body of work which will comprise both local landscapes and figurative works of all sizes. Areas that are simultaenously familiar and mysterious.

Richard's paintings feature in numerous private and public collections. He is currently represented by three very well established galleries around the country.

To view works by Richard Hearns go to http://www.richardhearns.com/blog/index.php

The exhibition in The Sheen Falls Lodge will open on June 1st and runs until July 1st.