CORK ARTISTS BRING WORKS TO THE PIGYARD
A JOINT exhibition by two Cork artists, Eileen Healy and David Barrett, who share a studio and a passionate interest in the human form, opened at the Pigyard Gallery at Spectrum Art and Framing in Selskar, Wexford, last weekend and will continue daily, except Sunday, until April 1.
Eileen is a figurative artist working in pastel and oil from models in her studio. You can see her work in the Crawford Art Gallery, University College Cork and in the Office of Public Works collection.
She has been awarded art residencies in Cill Rialaig, The Burren, the Tyrone Guthrie Centre and the Students Arts League in New York. Eileen uses the interplay of strong three-dimensional form with a linear pattern or flat shapes of colour including areas of untouched paper as a distinctive element of her work.
She teaches life drawing classes and summer school art sessions at the Crawford College of Art.
David works almost exclusively from the human figure in a style reminiscent of Lucien Freud. He works as an art teacher in Cork and has presented solo shows in various venues around Ireland including the Galway Arts Centre and Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh.
His work was selected for the RHA Summer Exhibition in 2011, 2013 and 2014, earning him places in the Arnott’s Portrait Award Exhibition.
‘I’ve been painting pictures with figures in them since I was in college. I paint friends and relatives and people who I find interesting for whatever reason, in spaces that are familiar,’ he said. ‘In my art I’m trying to evolve a naturalism that is distinct and un-photographic. That’s it.’
Both artists are based at the Backwater Studios in Cork.