There is an autumnal feel about the Helvick peninsula, the wind has a touch of sharpness and the sunshine has a last rose of summer tinge to it. All this and more can be seen at the Joan Clancy Gallery where there is the summer bathers in Blawnin Clancy’s work and the browns and rusts in the landscapes of Sinéad Hehir. You get the pastoral pale misty blue imagery of Andrea Jameson in Boats on Blackwater and the pricey quality of Arthur Maderson. There is also the modern graphic imagery of Rayleen Clancy and the unfinished drips and images of new kid out of college Raphael Llewellyn. John Cullinan has a triptych of Great oak and another new artist to this gallery Dave West, has a dark brooding Dawn, Ballinagoul Pier.
It is the work of Blawnin Clancy that stands out in this exhibition and her work in water and swimmers at play is very attractive. Another feature of her work is a few studies of rusting wrought iron gates and gate pillars catching a decaying and changing aspect of a decline in farming and living on the land.
Before I left Helvick, I made a quick visit to see these gates and farm entrances and was pleasantly amazed to see the changes and design in gates and the story within these entrances.
Sometimes artists make us look again at the world around us and see it again with refreshed eyes.
