Hamilton Gallery countdown to our St Brigid’s Day exhibition at 12 Star Gallery, Europe House London, is underway.

The exhibition will open to the public from January 23rd and run until February 1st, St Brigid’s Day, and it is part of the Irish Embassy in London’s St Brigid’s Day Celebration of Women and creativity.

In the run up to our opening night in London we bring you a daily blog with a selection of the 90 works by Irish women artists that will be shown at the exhibition.

We will include interviews and insights from the artists involved as well as other news and developments relating to events at the 12 Star Gallery in London which will occur in compliment to the exhibition.

Tonight our artists are Lisa Gingles, Janet Graham, Catherine Greene and Angela Hackett.

We also include the poem “Seasons” by Leland Bardwell. Lelands poem “St Brigid’s Day 1989” was circulated to all participating artists as the thematic inspiration for the exhibition.

Bríd Higgins Ní Chinnéide is a Dublin-born artist. She studied painting in St Petersburg and has lived in the US and the UK. She has returned to Ireland and now works from her home studio in Dublin.

“I was inspired by the image of the women gathering rushes, something I have done myself. The depiction of the hands holding the rushes, is a synecdoche of female industry and craft and a connection with the natural world. The reference for the work was an image of myself, which is appropriate here given my name.”

Annie Harrison|: “Born in the U.K., I have lived more than half of my life in the North West of Ireland.  I returned to painting as a mature student and completed my Degree in 2002. I chose to make this work on a potentially delicate (e.g. paper) ground in an attempt to explore converse concepts such as fragility and resilience in relation to the inevitability of ageing.

People, like stamps, are prone to wear and tear. Yet both may safely travel the globe. The Irish Worldwide stamp motif acknowledges Irelands own global diaspora.

The subject is caught off guard in vulnerable, eyes-closed pose, an introspective gaze. Anonymous and unwitting representative of the windswept amongst us, she carries the “satchel” of her (our) years with enduring, yet inevitably transient, grace.”

Hudak, Patty was born and raised in America and is of Irish heritage; her mother is from Bruff in County Limerick. She spent the last 12 years living and working in the cities of Tokyo, Beijing, and Hong Kong, and has recently moved to rural Vermont in the USA.

“In my painting, Behind the Reed Hushed Margin, brilliant orbs represent the spirit of youth, viewed from behind a barrier of shadowed drips. Through the ever-expanding veil of age and wisdom, we remember our younger selves, measured by the ritual marking of St Brigid’s Day.Portugal.”