CUIMHNÍ (Memories)
New works by Leah Beggs & Kathleen Furey
OCAP is delighted to present CUIMHNÍ (Memories) which features new work from local artists Leah Beggs & Kathleen Furey. The Exhibition had originally been planned as part of the SET IN STONE Project which was selected for Galway 2020 Small Towns Big Ideas Project. The SET IN STONE project focuses on the research of local Archaeologist and Historian Bill Daly, who has traced the history of Oughterard back to Neolithic times.
CUIMHNÍ will open in Oughterard Courthouse on Friday 16th July 2021 and continue to Sunday 25th July 2021. The Exhibition will be launched on Friday 16th July from 5.30pm-7.30pm. All welcome! Open to the public Monday to Saturday 10am -5pm and Sundays 12-5pm.
*Face coverings must be worn in the gallery and visitor numbers will be restricted for the comfort of all.
Click on images to view
Artist: Kathleen Furey
Title: Hyena in an Ancient Landscape
Medium: Mixed Media Print
Dimensions: 30cm x 33cm
Price: €450
Artist: Leah Beggs
Title: GORSE 1
Medium: Acrylic on Paper
Dimensions: 14cm x 14cm
Price: €195
Artist: Kathleen Furey
Title: Rock Pool 3
Medium: Mixed Media Print
Dimensions: 21.5cm x 25cm
Price: €250
Artist: Leah Beggs
Title: HILLTOP
Medium: Acrylic and Ink on Yupo Paper
Dimensions: 20cm x 20cm
Price: €250
Leah Beggs
Leah Beggs is originally from Dublin she currently lives and works in Oughterard. She is a graduate of Dunlaoghaire College of Art and Design.
She has exhibited widely in Ireland with recent solo exhibitions at Solomon Fine Art, Dublin (Jan 2019, Sept 2016 & Oct 2014), The Market Place Arts Centre Armagh (Jan 2013) The Kenny Gallery Galway (Feb 2009) The Linenhall Arts Centre Castlebar (May 2009) and The Signal Arts Centre Bray (Sept 2009).
Her work forms part of various collections in Ireland including Trinity College Dublin, IBEC, The Doyle Hotel Collection, Deloitte Art Collection, Savills Ireland, Garda HQ, Office of the Revenue Commissioners, An Bord Pleanála, Microsoft Irish Art Collection, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, The National Concert Hall and the Department of the Taoiseach.
She was awarded an individual artist Bursary from Galway County Council in 2011, 2013 & 2017.
Artist's Statement
“Ideas around climatic effects on the landscape are one facet to my paintings, whilst other more abstract concepts explore an emotive response to the landscape by reminiscing or suggesting a ‘sense’ of place, an atmosphere or a feeling, rather than depicting a particular scene.
This body of work is responding to ideas put forward by local historian Bill Daly and his work on the ancient landscape of Oughterard. I recall him speaking of very different weather patterns and the importance of the hills and the river to the Neolithic man in Oughterard. He mentioned 20 years of rain, how the discovery of copper in the land helped the move into the Bronze Age and the importance of the surrounding habitat, the river, the hills etc. in relation to how they lived.
This information inspired a series of sketches and small paintings in acrylic on paper, exploring the marks and scars on the riverbed, the colours of the metals in the land and the movement of the rain. Larger works of oil on canvas are reimagined landscapes that portray my emotive response to the landscape that surrounded them once, the same places that surround me now.”
Kathleen Furey
Kathleen Furey is from Galway. She studied painting at the Limerick School of Art and Design graduating in 1984. Her work responds to her experiences and surroundings, explores narrative and image relationships and deals with loss, memory and moments of realisation. Recent work reflects on how information comes to us through marks on a surface, how we discover traces of people who lived before us and how we interpret their stories and histories. Her work has been exhibited both at home and abroad and is included in public and private collections.
Artist's Statement
The landscape we live in interests me. Recently there has been time to explore locally, to cycle and walk in the landscape, to experience sunrises and sunsets and imagine the lives of people who inhabited the land before us. The fields, hills and waterways we see today may have been the setting for unknowable acts and events at another time. My work for this exhibition references history, myth, memory and observation. It responds to personal research regarding our ancestors, our earliest flora and fauna and new research and theories put forward by archaeologist Bill Daly. The images combine processes such as drypoint, collograph, monoprinting and chine collé.