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paintings by

Julie Beckett, Helene Brunicardi,
Vicki Crowley, James H Flack
& Geraldine O’Brien

Five artists in search of flowers ....

    There were dozens and dozens of primroses in bloom these past days on roadside ditch and riverbank.   The delicate, colourful freshness is uniquely captured in Geraldine O'Brien's 'Primroses' (no. 27)
    O'Brien's reflections of the vitality and breath-taking colours of late spring and early summer are best appreciated in the dark, cold days of winter.   'Michelmas Daisies' (no. 23) reminds of what was and what will be again.

    It will be mid-May before the acres and acres of wild bluebells in Killarney woodland will be in full bloom.  Helena Brunicardi's 'Bluebells at Muckross Abbey'  (no. 7) breathes new life into an old building.
    Brunicardi is particularly an artist of Spring.    Already the  'Wild Garlic Woodlands' (no. 6) are spreading their white carpets with a very distinctive fragrance.  This year's cherry blossom ... tulips ... apple ... and, appropriate for this opening, 'Roses in Glass Vase'  (no. 8).

     Julie Beckett's rugged texture and strong colours emphasise the length of the 'Spring Daffodil'  (no. 3) season this year.  And yet she also manages to retain the delicacy that is such a characteristic of the daffodil.        There is no such distinction in 'Red Poppies'  (no. 2).  Strong colour is the hallmark of this invader of disturbed ground or fresh planting.  It is also a fitting reminder of the bloodiness of war.  

 
    Spring flowers introduce the exotic to a grey world.  Vicki Crowley's painting on silk bring a regal dimension.  In 'Dream Vase:  Lullaby to a Kingfisher'  (no. 16) the luxuriant richness of the colours of bird and flower show that there is an extraordinary world in our midst - if we take the time to look.     While these exotica are dimensions of life close to all of us they have a heightened focus when our eyes are drawn to the spectacularly tropical in far away places ... especially if there is a whif of danger ... places like 'Aggie Grey's Garden, Samoa' (no. 12).

    James H Flack points to delicate and transparent aspects of nature that could so easily pass unnoticed.  The fleeting and light characteristics of his watercolour medium emphasises these dimensions.
    His subjects tend to be the smaller flowers.   Flack focuses in on his subject emphasising what we miss if we don't look carefully ... the  startling beauty of purple crocuses in March in 'Welcome Spring'  (no. 19) ... the carefree abandon of wild roses in late summer in 'Atop a Mountain Wall' (no. 18).

- Frank Lewis