Biography

Mary Donnelly

Mary Donnelly was born in Ireland 1964. She studied Fine Art  at D.I.T,  Dublin from 1982-1986. She was a member of Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin for fours years and in 1991 moved to live in Connemara in the West of Ireland. In 2004 she received the Oriel Gallery Award for ‘Landscape of Destinction’ at the Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition, Dublin. She has had many solo exhibitions including  Glucksman Ireland House, The Centre for Irish Studies, New York University(2005 ) The Paul Kane Gallery, Dublin(2007).
In 2009 she received  The Tyrone Guthrie, Virginia Centre for the Creative Arts, USA . Exchange Fellowship and an Arts Council travel and training Award.
She has work in public and private collections including the National Self Portrait collection, Limerick University. Mary is a contributor to the Great Book of Ireland.

Artist’s Statement

I live in northwest Connemara on the Renvyle peninsula.  I chose to settle here  primarily for its landscape which is the subject matter of my work.
In painting the landscape I am not interested in responding to mere view. It is about other realities. I wish to go beyond a painted exploration of what can be seen by the naked eye, to its geographical, its physical entity, as well as its individual spirit of place that speaks to us through all our senses.
     There is a mysterious narrative within the landscape of Ireland , especially that of Renvyle. When you have spent a winter there, surrounded by bare rock,
raging seas and grey skies, you learn a beauty and intensity that never really leaves. We have a longing   to connect with this metaphysical presence ,  which stimulates the whole sense of the spirit of the  place.
   The sound of the curlew,  the raging seas , the mountains and  the colours of the Inagh Valley are all like  messengers  sent to  awaken  our senses by the invisible world  all around.
Such a fragile gift hangs in the balance, as the modern idea of progress threatens to reduce such a landscape to a commodity.
. Quoting the words of Irish writer ,Professor John Moriarty, ‘We are ploughing the last remaining poetry out of it’

 

Norman Villa Gallery is located beside P.J. Flaherty’s pub in Lower Salthill.

Further information:
Norman Villa Gallery: 091-521131  info@normanvillagallery.com
Seán Ó Flaithearta: 086-8162175  seanoflaithearta@eircom.net