Eleven group, solo and Invited artists exhibitions will feature the work of over 100 Irish artists.

March 2nd – April 1st

Artist: Clive Bright.

The Spice-Box of Earth. New Paintings and Drawings.

April 6th – 29th

Artists: Brian Bourke & Jay Murphy

‘Aspects’.

Over beyond Crete oil and pastel 112cm x 76cm by Jay Murphy

Scots Pine, Wexford oil on canvas 108cm x 92cm by Brian Bourke

May 4th - 27th

Artist Trudie Mooney

'Outside, Inside.

May 4th – 27th 2017

Artist Janet Pierce

‘usice anam’

Uisce Anam c, watercolour on paper, 2015, 31 x 45 cms by Janet Pierce

Wild Flowers oil on board 25cm x 37cm by Trudie Mooney

June 1st – September 2nd:

Artists: Orl de Bri, Cathy Carmen, Catherine Greene, Eileen Mac Donagh.

Forged / Carved / Cast

Image 1. bronze 19cm on 10cm base by Catherine Greene 2

The Burden of Laughter. Cast bronze with pigment by Cathy Carmen. jpg

'Inner Space' Bronze and pure pigment H87cm x W28cm x D28cm by Orla de Brijpg

June 13th – September 2nd:

Artist: Invited Artists

Crazy Jane

(3rd and final in a series of annual invited artists exhibitions where individual works are inspired by the poetry of W B Yeats.)

Michael Flaherty - It's You My Love You Who are the Stranger.  oil on canvas. — Michael Flaherty - It's You My Love You Who are the Stranger. oil on canvas.

September 7th – 30th:

Artist Sorca O’Farrell

‘Re-visits’

The Group charcoal & Indian ink on fabriano paper 56cm x 58cmby Sorca O'Farrell

October 5th- December 2nd

Artists: Sophie Aghajanian, James Allen, Neisha Allen.

‘Connections’

...at the top of the stepsOil on linen   38 x 46 cms by James Allen — ...at the top of the stepsOil on linen 38 x 46 cms by James Allen

Out of Shadow 2. Oil on paper40 x 49 cms by Sophie Aghajanian

October 5th- December 2nd:

Artists: Bernadette Cotter, Tom Fitzgerald, Marie Foley, Graham Gingles, Vanya Lambrecht, Alice Maher, Zoe Murdoch Eilis O’Connell, Mavis Thompson and Clea Van der Grijn

'Art in a Box'

(Artists invited to create a unique art work in a supplied 42 X 34 cm wooden box).

7th December – 27th January:

Artists: Invited Artists

Hamilton Gallery 7th Annual Invited Artists Exhibition.

Hamilton Gallery 2016 Invited Artists Exhibition Collage.

What would you expect to see inside this old overgrown cottage on the side of the road in Donegal? Would you just pass by or would you try and get in to have a look? Well, I was passing this cottage every day a few years ago until eventually, my curiosity got the better of me. It wasn’t that difficult to enter, despite the tangle of brambles and weeds, but the door was open so I walked in. Ooooh, but it was eerie. There was a hole in the roof which let in some light from above. But I got such a fright when I saw someone peering back at me in the gloom! Hang on, it was me! I was actually staring at a dusty, cobwebby old mirror. See below.

I was on an artist’s residency in Donegal and I had met with the Gaelic poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh the previous day. He read me a wonderful poem that he’d just written about how spirits haunt the land long after the people who had lived there were gone. The poem is called: “Na Bailte Bánaithe” and here’s a short extract, with my translation below.

Tá ochlán chaointe sa ghaoth
a shéideann aniar ó Altán
is anseo tá damhán alla
ag fí aibíd an bháis
i bhfuinneog bhearnach an tseantí
inar chonaí mo chineál fadó.

There’s a loud wailing cry on the wind
that blows eastward from Altan
and a spider weaves a shroud
in the vacant window of the house
where my people lived long ago.

So this was the inspiration for a new body of work and I have been painting empty fireplaces in abandoned homes on the west coast of Ireland since then. I was thinking about how central the fireplace was to the home, how people used to keep the fire going throughout the night and throughout the year, and how it really was the ‘hearth’ of the home. If people were moving home, they would take a lighting sod of turf with them from the old house to begin the fire in the new house, so as not to break the cycle. Seeing these abandoned fireplaces, each with its own distinctive personality, was quite distressing and I undertook the series of paintings as a sort of requiem for those who had gone, a commemoration of the diaspora

So now, on the 6th of October, these paintings will be presented in the Hamilton Gallery, in a solo exhibition entitled: “Diaspora”. I hope you will drop in to see them.

Visit my weekly blog about the life of an artist at: https://emacl.wordpress.com/

Hamilton Gallery Programme 2017