Artist Mike puts bright young talents through exciting course

BORING grey walls of South Kerry, watch out! A talented troupe of newly skilled street artists might soon transform your appearance for the better.

That’s if the work they produced as part of a South Kerry Development Partnership-organised 10-week art course is anything to go by.

Bold and striking street-art pieces by the young South Kerry artists adorned the KDYS in Killarney last week as the course came to an end in style.

And it was little wonder the art was so pleasing to the eye, with the course given by one of Kerry’s best-known artists, and a man with a particular penchant for the mural, Mike O’Donnell.

Funded through the LEADER programme, the 10-week course was run in Killarney, Killorglin and Cahersiveen, offering young people the chance to learn skills needed to produce outdoor art projects, such as murals, and other forms.

The courses were supported by the KDYS in Killarney, the Sean Scoil in Killorglin as well as Foróige in Cahersiveen, who provided room space to enable them to take place.

Mike took the budding young artists through their paces in everything from anatomy and figure drawing to colour, digital drawing, typography and lettering, as well as mural design and painting techniques.

SKDP CEO Noel Spillane said that he was delighted with the outcome of the courses as it marked the first time the SKDP undertook such an initiative in the region: “While there are many activities for youth in South Kerry who have an interest in sports, there are much less activities for those who are not and this course provided an outlet for some of those.”

He thanked the groups for supporting the development of the project through providing the room spaces in the three areas and said he hoped that there will be an opportunity to work with them to build on this initiative under the new LEADER programme.

“I would encourage community groups out there who are potentially interested in developing murals in their areas to contact Mike and his team of young artists who may be able to assist them,” Noel added.

Artist Mike O’Donnell said that the young people involved were a wonderfully creative and diverse group and a joy to work with.

“Each of them has a unique voice that is needed now more than ever,” he said, and he added that South Kerry is richer for these young people expressing themselves.

Mike described it as a unique project that provided the young people involved with the scope and space to explore and develop their artistic talent, and he hopes that many of them will develop careers in the artistic sector in the future.

Ten-week art course for young people run by the SKDP in Killarney, Killorglin and Cahersiveen