Windows Art Trail
16-19 September
Various Windows around Portumna Free X marks the spot! Ever dreamed of finding a map that shows where the treasure lies? Well, that is precisely what this year’s Shorelines Arts Festival is bringing to the town of Portumna in the form of an Art Trail. As you walk around the town over the weekend of 16-19 September, you’ll see the Windows Art Trail, a great circle of artworks splashing their colour across various windows on the streets of Portumna. A giant map identifies all the spots where our festival treasure can be found, and also points to other treasures on permanent display. The map, specially designed for the festival by graphic artist Abby Dillon, will show the route of the Windows Art Trail. Download the Art Trail Map below:
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The artists involved are Josephine Geaney, whose nostalgic, mysterious photographs are accompanied by a painting she made specially for the occasion. Abby Dillon is showing some sensitive work, while Caroline Evans brings us some of her amazing animal paintings.
Mary Finn’s exciting, confident paintings fill a window at one end of Abbey Street, with the bold, colourful work of Emma Barone at the other end. Julie Potter fills her window with a striking display of paintings made in bleach and acrylic on black cotton. Curator Jenny Wood-Sullivan is hanging some of her thought-provoking artwork and Claire Finlay is showing fierce, powerful ceramics, featuring animals such as fish and hares and Michelle Ryan will also feature her work in the windows as well as at the Workhouse Centre.
Tucked away in each window is a small card bearing a single letter of the alphabet. Note these down in the right order and you end up with a secret message telling you where the treasure lies! Shiver me timbers, that’s a great line-up!
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Josephine Geaney
Josephine is a visual artist who is influenced by her home landscape around Tipperary. Mostly, her paintings derive from memory and she allows the paint to dictate the outcomes and process. Apart from working with cold wax and oil paint, and using tools such as squeegees as well as brushes, she enjoys using her hands to apply the paint, as this gives a looser, more fluid application to the surface. She is also a photographer who brings an artist’s eye to her work and her images speak to the eye and to the heart. www.josephinegeaneyartist.com |
Abby Dillon
Abby is a graphic designer and artist based in rural Galway. Having a huge passion for art and design, her inspiration comes from nature, wildlife and in particular she enjoys drawing the figurative form. Mediums used are pen & ink, coloured pencils, water colours and charcoal, with her work tending to be a mixture of all of the above. When Abby is not drawing she is a professional graphic designer with her own freelance company: Little Bird Design. littlebirddesign.ie |
Caroline Evans
Caroline, based in Co. Galway, is an international artist and book illustrator whose artwork sits in two opposing ends of the genre spectrum - Realism and Fantasy. She is currently working on a series of pen illustrations depicting Irish wildlife and farm animals, as well as continuing her involvement in a lifetime project to raise awareness of the plight of critically endangered wildlife. |
Mary Finn
Based in Co Tipperary, Mary is a visual artist, whose studio, in the shadow of a sixteenth-century castle, is set in an idyllic pastoral landscape. She paints scenes from country life, but her work is most often figurative and she sees herself as a storyteller fascinated by human expression. Her range is wide and her spirit is adventurous, exploring all kinds of materials and techniques. www.maryfinnart.com |
Emma Barone
Emma is a contemporary visual artist. She makes still life and landscape paintings in acrylic on canvas. She studied animation and has an eclectic design background that ranges from interior design to architectural ceramics, and from stained glass to jewellery design. Her work has been featured in various publications including Live Encounters Magazine, The Irish Arts Review, Senior Times, House and Home, and the Sunday Independent. Emma has exhibited extensively throughout Ireland, with 22 solo exhibitions under her belt, her work is in private and public collections including the Amsterdam World Trade Centre, Midlands Regional Hospital, Offaly County Council and Tullamore DEW Visitors Centre. Emma was recently awarded an artist residency at Cill Rialaig Artist Retreat where she produced this current collection of work. https://www.emmabarone.com |
Julie Potter
Julie is an artist and designer from Sligo whose work is instantly recognisable, due to her technique of using bleach and acrylic on black cotton to create her images. She is obsessed by light and always tries to capture it in her work, ironically always starting out from a black canvas. ‘Whether it is nightlight, sunlight, dusk or streetlights, the common link in all my paintings is light and its effect on the feeling and ambience of the finished piece.’ www.juliepotterart.com |
Jenny Wood-Sullivan (Curator)
Jenny Wood-Sullivan BA Honors Degree Fine Art Jenny is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice encompasses her interests in science, human history, symbolism, ancient petroglyphs, cave painting and sci-fi. Her work has been shown in The Netherlands, Spain, RHA in Dublin, Ireland, various group shows throughout Ireland and is in private collections worldwide. www.jennywoodsullivan.weebly.com |
Claire Finlay
Working from my studio in Co Mayo I am constantly inspired by shapes which merge from one into another - like fish into leaves. Everything is interconnected. When I see a cormorant taking flight, or the ripples on the water as the first salmon heads upstream to spawn, my mind is already lost in my studio, my hands bringing it to life in the clay. I use stoneware clay, oxides and matt glazes, firing at 1260 degrees. I mostly use the coil or slab technique, which makes each piece unique. www.clairefinlayceramics.com |
Michelle Ryan
Michelle is an Irish artist based in East Clare working primarily in glass and print. She completed a joint major in Art (Glass) and Art History as a mature student in the National College of Art & Design, graduating in 2016. She was also a resident in the studio of Czech glass engraver, Pavlína Čambalová. Michelle has participated in numerous juried exhibitions and competitions including the prestigious Bullseye Emerge and the Stanislav Libenský Awards, Gravur on Tour: Modern European Glass Engraving and Solas: the Glass Society of Ireland. She has exhibited her work internationally in the USA, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and the Czech Republic. www.michelleryanartist.com |