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MIKE BERNARD

Mike Bernard

Selected Recent Exhibitions

• Independent Artists, 1980
• RHA Summer Exhibitions 1980,82 88,91,95
• Ten Realist Painters, Sligo Arts Festival 1983
• RHA Banquet Exhibition 1994
• Oireachtas 1992
• Western Artists Exhibitions 1988,89,90
• Arnotts National Portrait Exhibitions.
• Guinness Peat Awards for Emerging Artists 1984
• Claremorris Open Exhibitions [Prizewinner on two occasions] 1984, 1990
• COE Prize winners Touring Exhibition 1996
• Irish Contemporary Art Exhibition, Omaha, Nebraska USA 2004
• Kilcock Art Gallery Annual Christmas and Summer exhibitions since 1984

• Tom Caldwell Gallery, Dublin and Belfast 1984
• Kenny Gallery, Galway 1989
• Hallward Gallery, Dublin 1996
• Carroll Gallery, Longford 1999
• Andrew Stone Gallery, Westport 2000
• Appleloft Gallery Easkey, Co. Sligo 2002, 2004
• Kilcock Art Gallery Co. Kildare 2004

• Office of An Taoiseach; Department of the Marine; Director of Public Prosecutions; Guinness Peat Aviation; Renvyle House Hotel; Sligo Park Hotel; Michael Cosgrove; Tony Ryan; Brian O’Halloran; Livingstone-Jones Collection, Wales; Brian Burns Irish Contemporary Art Collection San Francisco; Private collections in Ireland, Europe, U.S.A. and Japan
  
  
  

SARAH DAVIDSON

Sarah Davidson

She studied fashion design at the Grafton College, Dublin prior to her marriage and since which, she has pursued her interest with great enthusiasm.

Sarah trained for a time with Harry Cormick from Crawfords School of Art in Cork, with Wolfram Stump in Donegal and regularly attends the Achill Summer School organised by Desmond Turner, R.U.A.

Frank Eggington, R.C.A. (1908-1990) encouraged Sarah greatly and was her first mentor in Donegal.

Sarah participated in most local art exhibitions and has exhibited at the Gordon Gallery in Derry.

Sarah has been awarded the Glebe Gallery Prize in 1996 and has had a solo exhibition in Ranelagh, Dublin.

Artist Statement

‘My interest in the Donegal Landscape lies in the beautiful quality of the light, and the amazing skies. Even in the depths of winter, on a miserable day, the clouds will part and light up a section of the landscape - this is what I am trying to capture in my paintings.

The still lives are a celebration of the beauty of nature, coming to life after the winter, a few snowdrops, primroses, forget-me-nots growing wild in the fields, a camelia opening, hope, after the darkness of winter.

More recently, I have begun making paintings of my grandchildren, who are a great joy to me, playing in the garden or on the beach’

Exhibitions

• Travelling Exhibition with OCA, 1992
• Solo Exhibition, Ranelagh, Dublin 1993
• Atlantic '92 Group, Glebe Gallery
• Exhibition with Brian Gallagher, The Workhouse, Dunfanaghy 1996
• Exhibition with Maura McGlynn, The Workhouse, Dunfanaghy 1999
• Exhibition with Maura McGlynn, Orla Egan & Nuala Porter 2000
• Letterkenny Arts Festival 2000
• The Workhouse, Dunfanaghy, Co.Donegal 2003
• The McGilloway Gallery, Derry 2004

Collections

• Dept. of the Environment, Belfast
• Financial Services Centre, Dublin
• Glebe Gallery Collection
• Donegal Co. Council Collection, Letterkenny
• Brenda & Lochlann Quinn
• Martin Mooney
• Ray McSharry
• Albert Reynolds

Prizes

• Glebe Gallery Prize 1996 & 2004

KLAUS LEURER

Klaus Leurer

Klaus Leurer is from northern Germany and has been living since 2002 in Galway where he works as a researcher in the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences at NUI Galway.

Prior to studying geophysics he became a surveyor and cartographer with the Mapping and Surveying State Agency at Kiel. He learned mapmaking in the traditional way—using a pointed pen and ink. The after-effect of this training certainly still determines his approach to using brush and paint.

One of Klaus’ favourite subjects is the natural still life of the rounded beach pebbles, in challenging light settings, with glistening reflections of the sun and the sky in the wet rocks, with streaks of light from the low-standing sun. He always considers a composition of these pebbles with seaweeds and other specimens of marine life found along the shores of Galway Bay.

Artist’s statement: “Once a painting is completed, it represents an entity and it must, ultimately, speak for itself. Hopefully, it has something to say at all.”

The Galway, Claddagh, and Spiddal Paintings - Three photographs, taken by Marguerite Mespoulet and Madeleine Mignon in May, 1913, for Albert Kahn’s project ‘Archives of the Planet’ were used as models for renditions in oil. Working on these paintings soon made clear that there is a difference between the purely physical reproduction of a scene through the lens of the camera and the attempt to create a version of it in oil. The eye sees so much more than the lens. Therefore, a good deal of interpretation was involved during the painting, a lot of questions arose as to the thoughts the people shown on the photos might have thought. The colours in the photos obviously have become ‘shallow’ with time, so it seemed advisable to slightly enhance them, yet without destroying the general atmosphere of the scenes. Several features in the paintings deviate from the photographs. The Claddagh Colleen is put before a much more blurry appearing background. In Cattle Fair, the boy in the lower left corner received a face that is not blurred and the whole scene was put in brighter light to convey a sense of a hot day in May.

November Morning, Henry Street - This painting captures a rare moment in which the rising sun illuminates the still rain-heavy clouds just after a shower. This grandiose atmospheric spectacle is reflected by the wet surfaces, but the dark depth of the street only hesitantly yields by assuming a tentative, vaguely complementary colour spectrum. The halogen headlights of the cars are but weak competitors.

Salthill Road Rush Hour - Images of the sun on the vehicles enhance the darkness of the canyon-like road. This contrast of light and darkness in a near binary colouring scheme narrows the view to an extent in which the cars appear to lead a self-directed existence.

Detail of a 1510 Brabantian St. Anne Altarpiece - The selected detail shows one of St. Anne’s daughters looking up from the book to communicate the written word. At the same time she guards her little boys. In this magical moment, the older boy invites his brother to stay whereas the younger boy apparently wants to play. The scene is joyous and spiritual all together.

The challenge consisted in the two-dimensional presentation of the enormous plasticity of the folded garments so masterly carved. Presently, the formerly richly-gilded carving exhibits the original wood with its warm reddish colours.

Still life with Seaweeds - In this naturally composed still life the dominant elements are the rocks in the warm light of the late-afternoon summer sun and the reflections of the blue sky in the rocks’ water coating as well as the images of some of the rocks mirrored on adjacent rocks. The organic forms of the seaweeds modulate the sunlight and their shadows bring out the simple forms of the rocks.

St. Joseph’s Church, Galway - The church is seen from Eglinton Canal on a seemingly grey February morning, but the first sunlight, already shimmering on the church’s roof and being caught on the leaves of trees and shrubbery, will soon dissolve the fog. The different orientations of the church, houses and walls create an interesting variety of lines.

Intertidal - In this little still life, the winter seems tangible in spite of the warm bluish tones of the limestones as a cold sun, reflected by some of the rocks, appears through the clouds. A certain peacefulness is created by the bladder wrack in its intricate maritime beauty here for us to admire during low tide.

‘Winding Stair’ Violins - Violins are always hanging from the ceiling in the antiques shop ‘The Winding Stair.’ They are just beautiful and had to be painted.

Fiona - The shape of the old Galway hooker captivates the eye and challenges by its plasticity, here beautifully emphasised by the mirrored image of the sky on port.

LORNA MOONEY

Lorna Mooney

Lorna Mooney was born in Dublin in the late seventies, where art and creativity were always a big part of her life. She moved to Galway to study Art & Design in the Galway Regional Technical College where she specialised in paint and printmaking. She went on to study Fashion Design in the Galway Technical Institute. She is currently living in Galway; a place she has long ago considered her home. Lorna’s work is very much about people, she has a remarkable way of catching a mood, bringing both intensity and beauty to her images. She works predominately in oils on canvas.

Artist Statement

‘I have always loved and been fascinated with portraiture at how much mystery and depth the painted eyes of a stranger can hold; as they stare so soulfully at you from the canvas. The human condition intrigues me, and how the divine can be found in the ordinary. My current influence as an artist is mainly literary, in particular some of the writings of John O' Donohue, Daniel J. O' Leary and Anthony De Mello. In my work I hope to achieve as much honesty as possible, it is important to me to translate to my work the truth of what I see. We are all unique with some different view to share, my hope is to stay true to mine and find as much truth along the way as I can.’