Mary and Jilly explore the natural side of life
AN EXHIBITION of paintings and sculpture opening at Clayton Whites Hotel on October 27 will bring together the painter Mary Wallace and sculptor Gilly Thomas, who both like to explore the natural side of life, focusing on pure intuitive shape, simplicity of line and the beauty and colour found in nature.
The artistic pair have exhibited together on many occasions and are well known in the Wexford Festival Fringe.
Celebrated for her lively and colourful paintings of exotic fruit, flamboyant hens and roosters, Mary Wallace has a unique individual style and a palette pulsating with vibrant intensity.
She uses distinctive media including beeswax, egg tempera and gold leaf with an anergy that concentrates the intrinsic elements of her subject.
‘ This year, intrigued by the Japanese idea of beauty found in perfection, I have created a body of paintings unlike anything I have done before. People are fascinated by my use of gold leaf and I am working on a larger scale too which is always stimulating,’ said Mary.
Gilly Thomas captures the essence of form, with clean lines and the minimum of detail. Her aim is to create sculpture that is visually quiet so you are able to slowly absorb the natural contours with eye and hand.
In this exhibition which continues until November 6, she is showing works in both bronze and Cassini stone composite.
‘I have recently created an exciting new series of smaller bronze sculptures especially for the country home which includes grouse and shoaling salmon that I am very pleased with’, she said.
Visit gillythomas-sculpture.com and artwallace.com for more information. AN EXHIBITION by the award-winning artist Bernadette Doolan was offically opened on Sunday by Anya von Gosseln and is continuing in Bernadette’s gallery at 25 Selskar Street (opposite Greenacres and Spectrum). Bernadette said: ‘ The artist’s inspiration stems mainly from emotion and memory. For me it’s all about emotion. It’s common knowledge we have five senses. However, what about gut feeling, that hunch or first impression that seems to come from somewhere else within.
‘I completely lost my sense of smell and my ability to taste ten years ago. I therefore rely heavily on my memory of smells and tastes, to remember what certain foods taste and smell like.
‘When I evoke a certain memory through my work, be it that feeling I felt when making my Holy Communon, or the way I used to touch the fabric of my mam’s clothes as she cycled me to school each day, I’m instantly transported back to that very moment in time and my reliance on memory for smell and taste kicks in. I can smell the time of year, the grass, the air. I can taste the sandwiches from my lunch box, the faint scent of plastic transferred to the bread, all within my own mind.
‘Children also focus a lot in my work. This is my avenue for expression, for now at least. Having my own children, I get to watch them as they go through life and it can also bring out the child in oneself. We learn a lot from children, it’s nothing new or revolutionary, it’s just about remembering to play, laugh,have fun and not take life or ourselves too seriously. That there is a child in all of us that just needs to remember to slurp the end of that milkshake, every once in a while.’