Treat in store for Laois dog lovers at Bloom art exhibition
The 11 artists with their chockolate bone-shaped treats are Kevin McCann (curator) Antoinette Breen, Mary Slevin, Kate Knowles, Kathleen Gilligan, Margaret Deegan, Mauri Byrne, Aisling Conroy (standing in for her mother Marie Conroy) Mark Fisher with exhibition mascott Holden) Liam Phelan and Mike Rafter Photo: Stan Henderson
TOP dog at the Gallery of Divine Inspiration art gallery at Bloom Mountrath, Kevin McCann, howled through his old-style Nokia phone to gather a ‘pack’ of ten local artists to join him in a group exhibition featuring paintings of man’s best friend.
The art exhibition titled Dogs Dogs Dogs is currently on display throughout the bright and spacious corridors of Mountrath’s huge community hub, where the works will remain for the month of February.
This exhibition is sure to be delightful viewing for dog lovers as it features a variety of dogs painted in the artists’ different and unique styles. Some of the subjects are the artists’ own dogs or are family pets and several of the featured dogs are still with us, while others have, sadly, passed on.
Over 60 people attended the exhibition launch on Friday 6 February. As is customary since the first exhibition launch curated by Kevin back in October 2023, there were refreshments and home baked treats available for everyone who attended.
However, the treats for this exhibition were literally ‘treats’ as local exhibiting artist Mauri Byrne went ‘barking mad’ in her nearby kitchen in her home and made tasty chocolate treats for the event which were creatively made into the shapes of doggy paw prints and the popular doggy treats Bonios almost leaving everyone table surfing for more.
The 11 artists who have works in the exhibition are Mauri Byrne, Kate Knowles, Margaret Deegan, Marie Conroy, Mary Slevin, Kathleen Gilligan, Antoinette Breen, Mike Rafter, Liam Phelan, Mark Fisher and the gallery curator Kevin McCann.
Explaining the theme of the exhibition to the on opening night, Kevin said that he was delighted with the artists and the turnout for the launch.
He said: “Running exhibitions is like Dublin buses, when an artist pulls out, another one comes along. We had an artist booked for this month since November, but she wasn’t ready when I was confirming her three weeks ago, so I decided that we would do a group exhibition on dogs.
“I got on the phone to a good few artists to see if they had paintings of dogs and the result is that we have turned out a wonderful exhibition. Fair play to all of the artists. Some of them have done some works especially for the exhibition, including myself, and some artists that I had never met before donated pieces, so it’s absolutely great.
“Basically, we have a pack of artists who got on board with just three weeks’ notice and we pulled it together. The quality of work is very good overall. It’s interesting because I don’t know if I’ve heard of an exhibition on only dog paintings in Laois before. Maybe there was a solo artist who just paints dogs, I don’t know, but for a mix of artists to come together at short notice is really great.”
Monthly slots are available for artists to display their works. For more information, phone Kevin on 086 3552909 or Bloom HQ 057 9300036.
See more colouful photos in next week's issue of the on sale in local stores from Tuesday, next
