An exploration of the nature of line and time are fundamental to Brian Fay’s practice, writes Margarita Cappock
The discipline of drawing in pencil on paper is often seen as an exercise that accompanies the development of an artist’s thinking in terms of preparatory work for a painting or sculpture, a prelude as it were. Not so for Dublin-based artist Brian Fay, whose main practice for over two decades has been the execution of highly detailed, intricately worked drawings, executed principally in pencil on paper. With a background in painting, Fay’s switch to drawing came about in the mid-1990s when he made the decision to strip everything back to the essentials. He is still beguiled by the endlessly elusive nature of the medium, which he describes as fecund and rejuvenating as drawing does not belong to any one discipline.1 His works are meticulously rendered with acute insight and attention to detail.
Rose Jane Leigh’s importance as an early pioneering Wexford landscape painter and her choice of studying in Antwerp placed her at the centre of the major art movements of the 19th and early 20th century, writes Mary Stratton Ryan
