School exhibition remembers late Dundalk artist

THE Dundalk-born artist Jimmy Kinch, who died in Australia last October, is remembered in an exhibition of his work which opens in his Alma Mater, Coláiste Rís, on Thursday May 11.

Jimmy was a past pupil of CBS Dundalk, as the school was then known, and shortly before his death renewed his connection when the school commissioned a special work, through the approaches of Fergus McArdle and Celli O’Donoghue, to mark the 150th anniversary of the coming of the Christian Brothers to Dundalk in 1869. The picture entitled ‘One hundred and fifty years of education in Dundalk’ will be officially unveiled during the exhibition.

A native of St. Joseph’s Park he studied at the Dundalk Technical College and worked in the pattern room in Hallidays’ shoe factory. While he studied art with the Belfast painter Hugh McCormick he claimed to be a self-taught artist. His style is said to be ‘contemporary impressionism with a dash of expressionism’. He once described himself as a ‘painter of action, painting flight not feathers’. Kinch was a founder member of the Dundalk Art Forum. He moved to Australia with his family in the ‘seventies.

The exhibition will be opened by his wife Marie, who is travelling from Australia especially for the event. It is expected that up to 30 pieces of Kinch’s work will be on display including works brought from Australia especially for the occasion..

The exhibition will begin at 7.30 p.m. and runs until the evening of May 13.