Laois artist Nano’s vibrant landscapes capture the vibrancy of Mother Nature
Abbeyleix Library staff members Martina O'Connor and Lori Moriarty pictured with artist Nano Culliton (centre) and some of herl exhibition pieces Photos: Stan Henderson
AN AMAZING collection of paintings by a talented Laois artist was launched in Abbeyleix Library on Thursday 1 May. Growing up on a dairy farm in Mountmellick, Nano Culliton has been painting for most of her life.
Speaking to the about her work, Nano said: “I grew up on a dairy farm, but my dad passed away when I was nine and the cows were sold. My early memories are of the farm and going into the milking parlour to my dad. I was small and the cows were big, so I was always looking up at them.
“I went to art college in Waterford for a year, but I got itchy feet and didn’t want to stay in college. My experience was that we were being trained to paint the way our tutor liked to paint. Being very headstrong, I left and went travelling to Pakistan and Italy and I lived in Dublin for a long time. I now live in Cork.
“I came home to my studio on a lovely warm day and the sun was streaming in the window and hitting my palette, paints and brushes on the table and a painting that I was doing on my easel. I felt really happy and I knew that painting was what I wanted to do. You have to separate family expectations and what you want to do.
“My mother really wanted me to become a guard. I always worked part-time so that painting was not my work because, if it is, it becomes about the money and I never wanted that.” Nano loves to paint scenes from the forests near her home and to paint local places where she walks her dogs, adding that she “loves to capture colours and to be able to feel the breeze in my paintings”.
Opening the exhibition, award-winning artist and sculptor Gemma Guihan, who is also from Mountmellick, welcomed everyone to the “absolutely wonderful exhibition of paintings by Nano”.
She said: “I like to think of the opening night as not just a way to show off our work and make some sales, but it is also a true celebration for the artist and their creativity and accomplishments. When painting, I am reminded that we are not just copying subject matter, we are interpreting it in our own personal way.
“Looking around here this evening at all the wonderful paintings, we can see what it is that fascinates Nano. The landscapes that she has done and the colours that she has chosen in those and the way she handles the paint tells us so much about Nano, as it does about the scene that she is painting.” Addressing those present at the launch, Nano said that for years while stopped at the traffic lights beside the library when driving through Abbeyleix and looking at all of the wonderful paintings in the window that she always thought that she would love to have her work in that window. Nano said that she was given a date for 2027, but a cancellation arose and she had a show ready to exhibit, adding that she will return in 2027.
The wonderful collection of paintings is on display in Abbeyleix Library until the end of May.
