Not only is stained-glass artist Peter Young one of the few practitioners in Ireland employing the same techniques as his early muse Harry Clarke, but he is also the only living Irish artist represented in Ely Cathedral’s stained-glass museum in the UK. JOSEPH McBRINN traces the course of Young’s journey. RIANN COULTER suggests that it is ‘tantalising to imagine the impact of sculptor Anna Campbell’s work enlarged to the scale of public sculpture’; CORMAC BOURKE describes the artistry of medieval Irish hand-bells, alongside their many functions; and PATRICIA BUTLER pays tribute to the award-winning botanical artist Susan Sex, ‘whose subtle and frequently exotic interpretations stand at the forefront of botanical illustration’. Now living in West Cork, Australian-born artist John Kelly ‘owes much of his considerable career to the humble cow’, writes JOHN P O’SULLIVAN; photographer Norman McCloskey tells STEPHANIE McBRIDE that ‘the magic of a photograph for me still lies in the moment’; and, ahead of his exhibition at Taylor Galleries, AIDAN DUNNE looks at the paintings of Denis Farrell, who throughout his career has created ‘an exceptional body of work’.
Combining pathos and humour is a central strategy in Peter Young’s stained-glass work, writes Joseph McBrinn
Alastair MacLennan recalls working with artist Declan Byrne, whose mid-career retrospective was recently mounted at Kilfane Glebe House in County Kilkenny
Kiera O’Toole tells Susan Campbell that in her practice she is concerned with how humans experience the world in non-cognitive ways of being
Mark Ewart finds that the weight of art history and the lineage of landscape painting is never far away in Bridget Flannery’s work
Anna Campbell has maintained a remarkable consistency in terms of both technical skill and artistic vision, writes Riann Coulter
Aidan Dunne examines the richly textural grid-based paintings of Denis Farrell, finding work of great temporal depth
Corban Walker tells Brian McAvera of the inherent conundrum in his practice. ‘How do you use a transparent material or a transparent form to articulate volume?’
Stephanie McBride regards Norman McCloskey’s unpeopled images that expose the West of Ireland landscape in all its temperaments
Cormac Bourke examines the use, fabric and design of hand-bells in Ireland from the 5th century, when they regulated monastic life
Patricia Butler traces the artistic path and output of one of Ireland’s great botanical artists, Susan Sex
Julian Campbell outlines the expressive, emblematic ways in which artists have been drawn to the wild and rugged Atlantic landscape
Fionnuala Croke charts the formation of the remarkable Chester Beatty collection of Japanese printed works
Peter Harbison proposes that images on high crosses represent ‘good’ on their south-facing side and ‘bad’ on their north – the direction from which evil was thought to have come in medieval times
Julian Walton and William Fraher explore the magnificent Curraghmore House in County Waterford, where, three hundred years ago, the union of two families produced the most powerful dynasty in late Georgian Ireland
Emer McGarry reviews works in an exhibition at The Model in Sligo featuring newly discovered and restored watercolours by Jack Butler Yeats, and discusses the background to their creation
