THE Greenlane Gallery in Dingle is currently playing host to exciting painting and sculpture exhibitions.
West Kerry artist Patsy Farr has unveiled a series of exciting paintings inspired by her surrounding landscape which will be on view at the gallery until the end of the month.
This is the first time Patsy, who moved from Cornwall to Ballyferriter six years ago, has staged a one-woman show.
Working mainly in oils, she displays an enviably broad range in the exhibition which spins the spotlight not only on local characters the artist has spotted in her local pub but also on the natural world that forms their backdrop.
Following several visits to the Dingle peninsula in the late 1990s, Patsy decided to move to the area permanently with her partner Mike Smurth-waite and two sons Jason and Ben.
As well as dedicating her time to capturing the land and seascapes on canvas, the artist is also a musician - skilled on piano, guitar and piano accordion - and often plays with Mike’s rock and blues band Blasket Case.
Considering the energy and immediacy her paintings emanate, it comes as no surprise to learn that Patsy seeks out precarious perches on the cliffs to capture the sea at its most interesting.
“If you live in a landscape like this what else do you do?” she said.
“When I first came to Dingle I fell in love with the place. I met Susan at the Greenlane Gallery who showed my work for the first time in 1997, while I was still living in England.”
Tutored in painting by artist Henry Israel, Patsy also worked as a musician while in England.
But her mother’s death in 2000 was to mark a turning point in the artist’s life.
“I thought it was time to make a big change, or I would never do it.
We fell in love with an old house up the mountains and did it up. My sons opened a surf shop, where Ben is still working,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Greenlane gallery in Dingle is also now showing sculpture by Fidelma Massey, who takes her inspiration from the sun and moon and their astrological symbolism.
“I like the balance of opposites and I like directional things, for instance having a piece of sculpture aligned to the points of a compass,” she says.
“Having the sun and the moon attached to the bodies is a particular-ly favoured design,” she said.
The female form is another source of inspiration for Fidelma. “The image of the moon, for me, speaks of the cyclical time-rhythm, the way things change but remain the same. The moon changes shape and position but the changes are predictable and rhythmic, like all the cycles in nature. I have studied astrology and I find the sun/moon symbols very powerful.
“In astrology the moon represents femaleness, receptivity earth and water and the sun qualities of maleness, Initiation, air and fire, the balancing of these paradoxical qualities result in a wholeness and harmony,” she says.
For further information about the exhibition or for a catalogue contact Susan Callery on 066-9152018.
