A great day was had by all!

A big thank you to all who attended our 2010 Art Auction at Westwood House Hotel on Sunday, 18th April. The auction was a great success raising significant funds for our school. Here are some photos from the day:

Becca Losh

Mags Corcoran and Nick Plews

Artist Patricia Hehir

David and Agnes Warren and Emily Belfrage

Brona and Rian McNeill

More Photos from the Art Auction

Meabh, Marylou and Frank Clancy

Thanks to all our sponsors!

We would like to take the opportunity to thank the following for their support and help:

Shane Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald Auctioneers, Galway www.fitzgeraldauctioneers.com
David Kelly, Westwood House Hotel www.westwoodhousehotel.com
The Connacht Tribune www.galwaynews.ie
The Galway Advertiser www.advertiser.ie
The Galway Independent www.galwayindependent.com
Galway Bay FM www.galwaybayfm.ie
Galway Now Magazine www.goldenegg.ie
The Irish Times www.irishtimes.com
The Irish Independent www.irishindependent.ie
Cregal Art, Galway www.cregalart.ie
Treat Cafe, Claregalway www.treatcafe.ie
Beyond Beauty, Claregalway www.beyondbeauty.ie
Cara Bay Packaging, Galway www.carabay.ie
Claregalway Dental Surgery www.claregalwaydentalsurgery.ie
Design House Barna www.designhousebarna.ie
Educate Together www.educatetogether.ie
Galway City Museum www.galwaycitymuseum.ie
Nuacht Chlair www.nuachtchlair.com
Lynda Cookson www.lyndacookson.com
Xposed Media www.xposed.ie
Supervalu Hughes's, Claregalway www.supervalu.ie
The Arches, Claregalway www.thearcheshotel.ie
Gerry Campbell, AC Accounting Services
Abbey Florists, Claregalway
The Framemaker, Cross St., Galway
The Sanctuary, Claregalway
Frank Clancy
Mike McCann
Midie Corcoran
Helena Dixon-Cafolla
Dolores Lyne
Emer Gilpin
Roisin McManus

Lidia De Lange

SOLD
Artist: Lidia De Lange
Title: Blue Cow
Medium: Oil on Canvas

Lidia De Lange was born in Kroonstad, South Africa and studied painting, printmaking and jewellery design at the Pretoria Technicon, graduating with a Diploma in Fine Art in 1989. She has been living in Galway since 1991 and has participated in various exhibitions in Galway, Dublin, Kerry, Antrim and the USA. She was a member of Artspace from 1995 to 2004 and has been involved in several artists' cooperatives.

Leonie King

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Artist: Leonie King
Title: Scattered Remnants
Medium: High relief etching

Leonie King has been living and working on the Western seaboard for the past 25 years. She went to the London College of Print and the Central School of Art and Design. She lectured in printmaking in the Regional Technical Art College Galway, then went on to establish the Spanish Arch Print Studios and Gallery, where artists could both practice and exhibit. She was a founder member of "Western Artists", a major show in the Galway Arts Festival and subsequently "Impressions" an open submission show of national repute. King is part of Akin, a group of artists living long-term on the west coast of Ireland.

Patricia Hehir

Artist: Patricia Hehir
Title: Connemara Landscape
Medium: Oil on canvas

Patricia Hehis lives in Renmore with her husband and two grown-up children. A native of Tuam, Patricia has been painting for over 40 years and her work is in many private collections throughout Ireland. She studied Art and Design at GMIT and Paintbox Studios. She paints in oils, watercolours, acrylics and pastels.

Dagmar Drabent

Artist: Dagmar Drabent
Title: Reflections on Galway Bay
Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Born in Hamburg, Germany, Dagmar Drabent studied History of Art at Universitat Hamburg, and also studied with the artist Herbert Lerche. Her work is in the Galway City Council Collection, Art Collection of National University Galway, private collections in Ireland, UK, Germany, Luxembourg, USA.

• Member of Visual Artists Ireland.
• Member of National Sculpture Factory, Cork.
• Art Flight Award - The Arts Council
• Arts Grant - Arts Office, Galway Corporation

For more information see www.dagmardrabent.com

Aideen Barry

Artist: Aideen Barry
Title: Futility of Conveying Emotion
Medium: Pen and Ink Framed Drawing



SOLD
Title: Ventriloquized Bodies
Medium: Pen and Ink Framed Drawing

For more information see http://www.aideenbarry.com/

Sacha Hutchinson

Artist: Sacha Hutchinson

Titles: Brandon Bay, Kerry

Galway Bay (SOLD)

Sacha Hutchinson is a Galway-based medical consultant who is originally from Dublin. Already an accomplished artist, Sacha is in her final year, studying Fine Art at GMIT.

Jean Purtill

Artist: Jean Purtill
Title: Snow Bear
Medium: Oil on board

Jean Purtill is a Galway based artist. Her work is an exploration of an alternate way of seeing. Her last exhibition was during the Volvo Ocean Race in Galway in 2009, with Laura Brennan and Gary Coyle. She is currently working towards a solo exhibition.

Roisin Coyle

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Artist: Roisin Coyle

Title: Shadow Theatre

Medium: Monotype and watercolour

'My practice is narrative and explores memory, solitary experience and the individual's understanding in environmental space. In my practice I create multi-sensory, interactive, site -specific installations in which the spectator becomes fully immersed in their own experiential sphere. I am interested in the way the viewer navigates through a space in their own particular way and how this can evoke emotions and unlock memories within the psyche, thus enticing the viewer to become a participant as opposed to an audience. I'm also intrigued by spatial awareness and the overwhelming feeling of a space being too large. I often use humour and a playful element to invite the spectator to experience my installations drawing on anthropology, folklore, theatrical experience and the gothic.

I have been researching the theatrical narrative found in grottoes, altars and Mexican retablos and how these capture and freeze memories and moments in time. I'm interested in combining this form with kinetics, forming a tactile experience. The more interactive a piece is, the more it becomes the spectator's sensual experience. Through research I've also been drawn to the work of William Kentridge and Calder's Miniature Circus and Teatro de los Sentidos, all of whom have had a huge influence on my work. I employ mediums of monoprint, drawing, sound, light (or lack of) in my installations and work with composers, animators and writers/poets to enhance the work. I find collaboration pushes the boundaries of my practice and adds an interesting and inspiring new dimension to my work process.

for more information see http://www.roisincoyle.com/

Philip Lindey

Artist: Philip Lindey
Title: The Interventionist God

Philip Lindey is based in Galway. He graduated from the National College of Art, Dublin in 1992. In 1997 he put together a body of work for his solo show in the Galway Arts Centre. In 1998 he began his Master of Fine Arts Degree. After graduating he had a successful solo exhibition in Belfast. His portraits are clearly not accurate representations of particular individuals, yet they capture the spirit, the essence of the person portrayed, leaving the viewer with a sense of having encountered these colourful characters in every day life.

Isabelle Gaborit

Artist: Isabelle Gaborit
Title: Deeper than you think
Medium: Mixed media on canvas

In my work I am dealing with fragments of memory and isolated thoughts like a personal jigsaw. The end effect plays on different layers, planes or levels. The eye of the viewer is drawn into the painting, into details, floating, drifting across the ethereal outlines of fragments of a story. Structures build on top of one another in layers, creating veils. I mainly explore the concept of fragmentation of time over one another, and my body of work is an attempt to remember and look underneath, to weave these pieces together, in other words, to unwrap the numerous layers and to offer the viewer a space in between, a void in the midst of reality and memory.
I use the layering of mixed media, collage and paint to explore a personal lore, a viewable expression of the many facets of my thoughts. I combine and overlap found objects and drawings I created, leaving them exposed but also concealed within the work.
Veils become translucent and reveal hints of past forms, layers of textured strucures and colour.
Each drawing is fragmented and isolated like a lost memory. Remaining are fragments, incomplete, unfinished, broken or torn off, the extant scrap of what was once familiar.
For more information see www.artspacegalway.com.

Catherine O'Leanachain

Artist: Catherine O'Leanachain
Title: Winter Tracks
Medium: Mixed media on canvas

Catherine moved to Galway in 1978. She graduated in History of Art and Archeology at the University of Paris, Sorbonne, in 1969 , and studied Architecture at l'Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts, Paris, graduating as an architect D.P.L.G. in 1978.

She is a founder member of Artspace Studios where she is currently chairperson. She was WAAG, Western Representative in the 1990's and has exhibited widely in Ireland and abroad. She co-ordinated the Artspace International Exchange programmes from 1996 to 2000.

For more information see www.artspacegalway.com.

Jay Murphy

Artist: Jay Murphy
Title: Jimena de la Frontera
Medium: Oil on canvas board

Born in Dublin. Studied fine art at Dunlaoghaire School of Art and Central School, London.

Artists' Groups and Organisations:
Founder Member of "Fior Uisce" in Dublin and later the "Western Artists".Both independent artists organisations put on exhibitions annually for a number of years.
Member of the "Island Connection" group of painters and sculptors which arranged exhibitions on various European islands, from Inishbofin and Inishmore to Malta and Tenerife etc..
Member of AKIN, a group of five artists, an offshoot of Westerns Artists. Chairperson of AKIN in 88/89.
2002 AKIN conducted a national tour exhibiting in ten arts centres throughout Ireland.
2003 AKIN major exhibition for which the group received a Galway County Council Arts Award.

For more information see www.jaymurphy.ie

Janet Vinnell

SOLD

Artist: Janet Vinnell
Title: Claddagh
Medium: Pastel

Janet was raised and educated in Dublin, later moving to Ireland’s west coast where she established a home for her young family in Galway City and where she has lived for the past 25 years.

She began painting in oils shortly after arriving in Galway but soon found a liking for the somewhat unfashionable medium of pastel. She remains mainly self taught as an artist, although meeting fellow pastel artist, Victor Richardson, inspired Janet with a renewed entheusiasm for this wonderful medium which is as ancient as the hills. This unleashed a passion for pastels which continues today.

Combining her drawing skills with vibrant chalk pastel colours, she creates sumptuously rich and instantly accessible paintings of Galway’s landscapes, waterways and gardens. Her ability to bring water and reflected skies to life is masterful and her use of a light and painterly style is ideally suited to the rapidly changing scenes and weather patterns in the west.

For more information see http://www.janetvinnell.com/

Val Wright

Artist: Val Wright
Title: Cruising Home
Medium: Acrylic

Val is a native of Galway, living in Renmore with her husband Len. She has a grown up family who have encouraged her all the way in her love of art.
She has been painting for over thirty eight years. She has studied Fine Art and Design in G.M.I.T. and has completed many workshops with various teachers over the years.
Acrylics and oils would be her main interest, but she has also worked in pastels and mixed media.
She has exhibited many times over the years and has held two solo exhibitions in 2006 and 2009. She has also worked on commissions for the private sector.

Mark Kelly

SOLD
Artist: Mark Kelly
Title: Conflict

David Archer

Artist: David Archer

Title: Sketches of Spain

Medium: Oil on canvas

Kathleen Furey

Artist: Kathleen Furey
Title: In Connemara 2
Medium: Mixed media on board

Kathleen Furey is from Galway. She studied painting at the Limerick School of Art and Design, graduating in 1984. She is a founder member of Artspace Studios, Galway’s longest established Artists Collective.
She works with a combination of mixed media including acrylic, gouache, printing inks, crayon and coloured pencil on board and paper.
The images, symbols, shapes and forms in the work are unified by colour, effects of light and atmosphere. Sometimes there is a narrative content, sometimes a presentation of a moment in time.
Kathleen’s work has been exhibited both at home and abroad and is included in public and private collections.
For more information view www.artspacegalway.com

Ger Sweeney

Artist: Ger Sweeney
Title: Enigma Red

In recent years Ger Sweeney's paintings have focused on developing a synthesis of abstract and figurative referents. His balancing of the formal and compositional with elements of colour and light culminating in his "Terrain" series 05/06. From his smaller object like works to the epic scale pieces his practice is informed by a century of evolution and change in the language of painting. Openly engaging with the viewer and inviting interpretation, his work reflects the more progressive concerns of painting today. In a comprehensive new body of work "Notes from a silence" the artist expands on earlier themes, broadens his frame of reference and introduces tactile and painterly aspects, heralding a new phase in his ongoing dialogue with the potential and possibilities of art through the medium of painting.

Ger Sweeney currently lives and works in Co.Mayo, Ireland.

Pauline Garavan

SOLD
Artist: Pauline Garavan
Title: Expansum
Medium: Charcoal on Paper

Pauline Garavan is a Fine Art graduate of G.M.I.T., and Sligo I.T. She has been exhibiting regularly in the RHA Annual Show, and last year participated in Belfast's Royal Ulster Academy Annual Exhibition. Her work featured in the 2008 Taispeantas Ealaine an Oireachtais in Cork. In 2009 her work formed part of an exhibition on the theme of the sea in the Kenny Gallery, Galway to coincide with the Volvo Ocean Race. Garavan has exhibited widely in group shows. Her solo show '...the sea, the sea...' was held in the Custom House Studios in Westport in late 2007, while her solo exhibition ' Blazing Roofs' is currently showing in the Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon (see http://www.thedock.ie/). Her work is found in private collections in both the US and in Ireland. She lives in County Mayo.

Jim Kavanagh

SOLD
Artist: Jim Kavanagh
Title: Untitled
Medium: Oil on paper

Jim was born in London to Irish parents. After graduating with a degree in Fine Art he lectured at third level for a number of years before becoming a fulltime artist. Jim has had numerous successful shows in both the UK and Ireland, as well as having his work in private collections around the world, and in several finance companies in London where he was commissioned to do large scale canvases. In 2002 he moved to the West to live and work, evidence of which is becoming increasingly visible in his work. The Irish land and skyscapes have become an increasing source of inspiration for Jim’s work, and this is particularly evident in his recent series of largescale bog paintings.

Jim’s paintings are formed by using the techniques (scumbling, glazing) of the Old Masters such as Rembrandt and Turner. These skills are fused with the more contemporary influences of Rothko and Pollock, which he utilises to create his own responses to skyscapes and landscapes - creating timeless images, and invoking a sense of place, both real and imaginary.

For more information visit www.jimkavanagh.com

Denise Hogan

SOLD
Artist: Denise Hogan
Title: Secret Place

Denise Hogan is one of Ireland's emerging artistic talents. A graduate of G.M.I.T. (Galway) in Art and Design has exhibited her work extensively both locally and nationally with works in many private international collections and has received much critical acclaim to date. Denise is a fine art printmaker and painter presenting a mixture of paintings and monoprints. Her work is mainly figurative, exploring the animus and anima within, the relationship between the physical and etherial and the sensuality of the relationship between materials and artist.
Inspired by music and dance, Hogan produces colourful and enigmatic works of art. She believes that the materials she chooses to use in her work dictate its flow. The artist sets up an intimate dialogue with her materials and work surfaces to create subtle variations on the themes of spiritualiy, identity and sexuality. It is though we are offered a window into a moment of privacy and pure physical being. That private moment when soul and self are allowed to fall into each other. This artist embraces and celebrates the existance of the creative energy that surrounds us continuously.
For more information visit http://www.denisehogandesign.com/

Rosemary Carr

SOLD
Artist: Rosemary Carr
Title: Amber in the bog and blue in the lake, Roundstone bog
Medium: Oil on panel

Rosemary Carr lives and works in Connemara, painting oil with a palette knife outside only finishing work in the studio. Rosemary is a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters since 1989.

Pat O'Connor

SOLD
Artist: Pat O'Connor
Title: Doon Lake, Co. Clare
Medium: Limited edition photograph

For more information visit http://www.patoconnor.org/

Kenneth Webb ATD (Hons), RWA, FRSA

Artist: Kenneth Webb
Title: Bog Pools, Autumn
Medium: Oil and acrylic

Internationally known artist Kenneth Webb is represented in Ireland by the Kenny Gallery, Galway, the James Gallery, Dublin and in the UK by W.H.Patterson, Mayfair, London. In 1953 he was appointed Head of the Painting School, Ulster College of Art. In 1957 he founded the Irish School of Landscape Painting and has since lectured for Queen's University Belfast, and in the Tate Gallery, and National Gallery, London. Publications include "Kenneth Webb" (1974) Shenval Press, London, and "Webb, a Profile" by Thomas Kenny (1990), also Kenneth Webb - A Life in Colour (2003 Antique Collectors Club).

For more information visit www.irishschooloflandscapepainting.com

Joan Webb

Artist: Joan Webb
Title: Summertime, Roundstone Bog
Medium: Watercolour

Joan Webb BA exhibits at Kenny Gallery, Galway, Wexford Festival, Alan Gallery, R.W.S London, Purple Onion Gallery.

Margaret Irwin

SOLD
Artist: Margaret Irwin
Title: Talking Ruins Inishlacken
Medium: Charcoal Drawing

Born in India of Irish parents, Margaret returned to Ireland at the age of 9. Her education led her to Trinity College, Dublin, where she studied Modern Languages and Literature, followed by the History of European Painting. Margaret then chose to train as a painter in the studio of Andre L'hote, Paris, over a three year period. She then returned to Dublin and exhibited regularly in the major exhibitions of the time such as Living Art and the Oireachtas exhibitions. In 2008 Margaret received a "Lifetime Achievement Award", Galway Co. Council Arts Awards.

For more information visit http://www.margaretirwin.net/

Joe Boske

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Artist: Joe Boske
Title: Zeus Faber
Medium: Limited edition print

Joe Boske is a Galway-based artist and musician, originally from Wolfsburg, Germany. He has been in Ireland since 1969 and is best known for his distinctive Galway Arts Festival posters and his album cover designs, for groups such as De Dannan and the Saw Doctors. In 2005, he staged a solo retrospective of 40 years' work in Haus Rhode, a cultural centre owned by car makers Volkswagen in his home town of Wolfsburg.

Grace O'Sullivan

Artist: Grace O'Sullivan
Title: Elle Toro
Medium: Oil on board

Grace O'Sullivan is a visual artist living in Co. Clare. Her art work involves mainly oil painting and photography. Her main areas of interest are gender representation and spirituality, but she is fascinated by signs and symbolism of all kinds, myths, the femme fatale, masks and illusion, flying dreams, mysticism and typography.

Education:
BA (hons) Visual Communication, Limerick School of Art and Design, Ireland
MA (by research) Media & Communication Studies, MaryImmaculate College/University of Limerick, Ireland.

For more information visit www.graceosullivan.com

Harriet Leander

Artist: Harriet Leander
Title: Owls
Medium: Oil and ink on canvas

Harriet Leander was born in Helsinki, Finland attended art college in Stockholm, Sweden and now lives in Galway. Her work has been exhibited at the Rory Mitchell Gallery, Oslo, the Town Hall Theatre, Galway, Galleria Dix, Helsinki and the Galway City Museum in the last year.

Sara Susan McNeill

Artist: Sara Susan McNeill
Title: Off to Market Lough Inagh
Medium: Oil

Sara McNeill was born in Belfast and educated at Battle Abbey & Milfield School, Somerset. She obtained a Diploma of Art in 1974 . Post Graduate study with Kenneth Webb and The Irish School of Landscape Painting. Elected Fellow , Irish School of Landscape Painting in 1975, and Elected Member of the Ulster Society of Women Artists in 1977, and was Treasurer of U.S.W.A., 1989-1999, and Vice President from 2000 until 2003.
For more information visit www.saramcneill.com

Sean Cotter

Artist: Sean Cotter
Title: Black Sun
Medium: Mixed media

"Landscape works as a metaphor for life and its dramas, whether in turmoil or at peace. Wide open spaces can be shut down by a few well placed lines and so emulate the constraints of the modern world or a persons desire to contain and control their own immediate emotional environment. Blurred boundaries between areas of light and dark recall the sometimes difficult choices that are neither right nor wrong. While history, whether the viewers or the images, impacts on every work it is its own aesthetic that carries it off in the end and it is the exploration of my medium that keeps me behind my studio door. "
For more information visit www.seancotter.com

Joan Hogan

Artist: Joan Hogan
Title: Untitled
Medium: Oil on canvas

Joan Hogan, visual artist, is a graduate of GMIT. Her paintings are intensely physical with vibrant energy in the work. She challenges the viewer not only to look at the painting but, to step beyond the mere image into a world that appears to hang between the intervals of time and space. Her work reflects the Artist's own journey sublimated through memory and imagination, resulting in work that touches the soul of the viewer.

Sarah Mitchell

SOLD

Artist: Sarah Mitchell
Title: Cooloola's Patterned Fish I
Medium: Hand-coloured lino cut (editioned to 5)

"I grew up in Ireland, my fevered imagination fed by the poetry of Hillaire Belloc and Edward Lear. Their poems were often published with glorious illustrations. Combining words and images has been a lifelong passion, and as I grow older, the humour in a lot of my work has sharpened into satire."

Marja Van Kampen

Artist: Marja Van Kampen

Title: Still life with Daisies

Medium: Acrylic & collage on paper

Marja van Kampen was born in The Netherlands and graduated from the Akademie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Arnhem, The Netherlands. She moved to Ireland in 1982. She is a full-time painter and printmaker. Her work is in many public collections including The Arts Council of Ireland, Department of the Taoiseach, Office of Public Works, Microsoft Irish Art Collection, AIB and others. Some of her very large works are in the Radisson Hotel Collection and the University College Hospital Galway Collection.
Her last solo exhibition "Of the Essence" was on show in the Kenny Art Gallery in 2009.

Annie West

SOLD

Artist: Annie West

Title: We live in an imperfect world

Medium: Limited edition fine art print

Annie exhibits annually in Dublin, Sligo and Galway and at her online gallery (http://www.anniewest.com/). She illustrates figures from history, literature and science with mischief in mind. She also works to commission and originals can be found in the collections of film stars, musicians, children, policitians, firefighters and rugby internationals.

John Behan RHA

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Artist: John Behan RHA
Title: Tain Wax Bull
Medium: Bronze

Born in Dublin in 1938, and now living and working near Galway city where he continues to vary his style of expression, John Behan is firmly established as a sculptor of international stature.

"My art is related to ancient culture as well as to modern technique. I feel that every artist, be they poet or writer or sculptor or painter, must have roots, roots that will tap into the ground. It's not to say that you don't live in the modern world - I use all the technology that I possibly can to express myself, I am very aware of what's going on in terms of technical innovation - but in terms of Irish art, we have had a gap between the Middle Ages and the 20th Century when no visual art was produced. So I had to go back: the future was in the past, if you like."

Michael Viney

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Artist: Michael Viney
Title: Burren Billy
Medium: Watercolour

Vivien Murray

Artist: Vivien Murray
Title: Still-life East Light Rathlin Island
Medium: Acrylic on card

Charlotte Kelly

Artist: Charlotte Kelly

Title: Sheltered Cove

Medium: Oil on linen

'Having deep intimacy with the earth and its changing shapes and forms gives a real feeling of spirituality and emotion. Driven by a sense of quietness, these shapes have often been moulded into a figurative form. Nurturing the work rather than insisting on immediacy.

For a full artist biography see http://www.charlottekelly.com/

Lynda Cookson

Artist: Lynda Cookson
Title: Fields of Lilac
Medium: Acrylic on paper

'I use my imagination, freedom of colour and stroke-movement, to bring my art to life, finding inspiration in the unexpected and in the use of ‘rebellious’ colours.'

For a full artist biography see http://www.lyndacookson.com/

Signed copies of Lynda's new book 'Tea 'n Turps' will also be on sale at the CET auction.