Maighread Tobin’s self portrait is on the cover of our spring issue. Ahead of her exhibition at the Limerick City Gallery of Art, NIAMH NicGHABHANN views Tobin’s recent paintings and fi nds her ‘sculptor’s attention to surface is ever-present’. BRIAN McAVERA interviews painter Mike Fitzharris from his studio in Spain, where spring almond blossoms against blue Mediterranean sky continue to inspire his paintings. Sculptor John Rainey, who embraces 3D digital models of classical plaster casts, tells MICHAEL WALDRON how ‘Parian porcelain lends itself to colour’ and that his sculptures are ‘preoccupied with bodily forms’. MYLES CAMPBELL looks at the past vicereines of Ireland, among whom was Maria, Marchioness of Normanby who helped to develop the Irish poplin-weaving industry and cultivated a market for Irish wares at the royal courts in London and Belgium. Blaise Smith’s still-life works are ‘spontaneous and boldly experimental’, writes AIDAN DUNNE in advance of Smith’s exhibition at the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny; and STEPHANIE McBRIDE fi nds photographer Linda Plunkett’s unique images – inspired by the Pictorialist movement of the late 19th century – emphasise ‘nature’s presence and its vulnerability’.
Nature is an abiding source for Maighread Tobin and her new series of paintings reflect her engagement with natural sculptural forms, writes Niamh NicGhabhann
Though best known for his landscapes and portraits, Blaise Smith has been painting still lifes for more than two decades and, writes Aidan Dunne, they are among his most personal and speculative works
Cristín Leach talks with Cian McLoughlin, whose ongoing interest in the painting of crowds is ‘accidentally topical‚’
Marcel Vidal finds that a thread of instability runs through Freida Breen’s sculptural practice
John Rainey tells Michael Waldron that he designs environments for his work to exist in, thereby reversing the dynamic so that we exist within their world for a period of time
Mike Fitzharris tells Brian McAvera of his attraction to colour captured in the brilliance of an Irish summer or Spain’s Andalucía
Residency programmes are the life blood of the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, with each participating artist donating an artwork to the museum, writes Marie Bourke
Experimentation is very much a part of Linda Plunkett’s process and her new series seems something of a departure for her, but Stephanie McBride finds her approach is firmly rooted in her engagement with the natural landscape
Patrick Bowe unearths how medieval monks fished, foraged and cultivated one of Ireland’s earliest known kitchen gardens on the cliffs of the windswept island of Skellig Michael
Gabriel Hayes was invariably identified in the press as a woman, wife, mother and grandmother before being acknowledged as an artist, which distracted from serious critical reception of her work, writes Paula Murphy
Once prominent in Irish life, the vicereines and their legacies are largely overlooked, but the faces of these women have now been afforded a place on the walls of Dublin Castle, writes Myles Campbell
A set of embroideries commissioned by Nobel laureate William Butler Yeats and executed by his sister, Lily, for the 1932 Eucharistic Congress has recently come to light in America. This rare needlework tells a story of Irishness, religiosity and a transatlantic arts and crafts journey.
David Davison looks at the photographs in the last chapter of the National Library of Ireland’s recent digitisation project
Roger Stalley traces the fractured history of Carlingford Castle in Co Louth, accessible to the public again following a ‘bold and unashamedly contemporary‚’ intervention by Howley Hayes Architects
Conor Nolan selects a painting from the Waterford Gallery of Art’s collection, Girl by Leslie MacWeeney
A drawing of the Virgin attributed to Maud Gonne leaves Christian Dupont wondering
Homan Potterton (1946-2020) An Appreciation by Peter Somerville-Large
