Clare Rhythms - Mostly!

Exhibtion Note

Although this exhibition strays beyond the ambit of Burren it will be primarily on the strength of its Burren paintings that it will be assessed. This is because it is generally accepted that the Burren is one of the most difficult landscapes in the world to paint. The reason is simple: in the Burren you never see the same object twice. This is because the landscape is constantly being transfigured, transmuted, transformed; by water, the movement of man, light. Furthermore, most of the techniques applied to other subjects are Burren-derived.

Most people endeavouring to paint the Burren tend to either over-dramatise it or reduce it to individual, stark objects. Erratics and animals (especially those on the move!) define themselves against and help define the broader landscape. But to dwell on them is to chase an illusion for, in the end, there are no short cuts to confronting the central problem - reconciling gravity and weight-lessens - and to avoid confronting this is merely to postpone arriving at the artistic solution.

For the past 30 years Noirin has grappled with this problem. A graduate of U.C.G. and the Limerick College of Art, Noirin Mooney nee Williams was born in Co. Galway, moved to Kilrush, and later, to Limerick where she taught at Scoil Carmel and Mary Immaculate Teachers' Training College. She swapped teaching for a more hands-on participative approach to art, however, when, in 1969, she married the poet, Brian Mooney and, together they moved to the Burren in Co. Clare.

Since the late 70s she has held some twelve separate exhibitions ranging from Ireland through Europe to America. It has to be said "Clare Rhythms - Mostly", makes a distinct break-through in colour and form. It is certainly the closest she has come yet to capturing something of the essence of the place. Her palette has expanded enormously and many of the canvases grow directly out of it. The old themes - pavements, mountains, animals - are still there but now, as part of a more integrated whole. Old rhythms are supplemented by new: especially musicians who, perhaps, best symbolise the artistic quest in that the evanescent melodies they produce seem to rise so effortlessly above the solid base that underscores them.