Join us for the opening of our Christmas exhibition on Saturday 7th December at 3pm were Michelin star winning chef and artist Colin O’Daly will prepare Christmas delicacies and share his life journey with food and art.

The exhibition will Feature new works by gallery artists including Colin O’Daly, Eileen Meagher, Ian Cumberland, Peter Monaghan, Sean Cotter, Stephen Johnston, Ian Pollock and Eamonn Ceannt.

Colin O’Daly 's work "strives to explore the link between emotion and experience, one's memories and oneself. Were it possible to live in the world free from the restrictions of memory, primal emotional forces would surely predominate. My work attempts to bring the emotion's eye view of the world onto canvas." - Brian Maguire

Eileen Meagher was born in 1946. She studied art at N.C.A.D. in the sixties and was also taught draughtsmanship. Her landscapes are much sought after and are part of many important collections throughout the world. Here in Ireland her paintings are part of the National Collection and are hanging in many government departments. Her work also forms part of the collection in Westport House, Blackrock Clinic and the Australian Embassy. It has been said of Eileen Meagher paintings that the smell of the turf and the roar of the water emanate from her work. Seldom has a painter succeeded so skilfully in translating into paint the powerful beauty of the Connemara landscape and the Atlantic seascape. Eileen lives on a quiet peninsula in Connemara where she finds inspiration for her highly detailed paintings.

Ian Cumberland , the 2010 winner of the Davy protrait awards, was born in Banbridge, Co. Down, in 1983. He studied fine art at University of Ulster, where he was awarded the John and Rachael Turner Award for the most outstanding student in their field. He graduated in 2006 with First Class Honours. Ian was offered a place at Goldsmiths College, London, to study a Masters in Art, but instead decided to pursue painting full time. He has since exhibited at the annual exhibitions of the Royal Ulster Academy and group shows throughout Ireland. Ian's first major solo exhibition was at the Albemarle Gallery in 2008 and he recently exhibited his painting ‘1 in 2’ at the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery, in June 2009 as well as the Royal Ulster Academy Exhibition 2009 where he won the KPMG Emerging Artist Award. In February 2010 Ian won the much coveted Davy Portrait Award worth £10,000/€11,750. His work resides in the collection of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Ian's style has been described as realism. He draws inspiration for his work from the humour and contradictions present in everyday life. Ian Cumberland lives and works in Belfast.

Peter Monaghan has been awarded the Jim McNaughton / Tile Style Bursary for Commissioned Artist, awarded by Alliance Business to Arts Awards 2010. The bursary is awarded for Peter Monaghan's work 'Twelve Tones' which was commissioned by OMS architects for One Grand Parade. ‘Twelve Tones’ is a site-specific work, 10 meter by 5.2 meter, uniquely created for the architectural space of One Grande Parade. Part of the concept for the building envisaged a 3-storey atrium, the space required an extra element to signal its presence as an entrance and to attract passers-by. The final pieces contains 1323 hemlock wooden dowels, cut at an angle to reveal an elliptical surface, gold leafed and arranged in a pattern, to reflect the light and generate a dynamic movement depending on the point of view of the observer. Each dowel was accurately located and adjusted to just the precise angle, by Peter Monaghan working with OMS Architects and Conor Devoy of Michael Devoy & Company, Cabinet Makers and specialist interior fittings.

Sean Cotter was born in 1969 in Monasterevin, Co Kildare. In 1987 he attended The National College of Art and Design and graduated in 1991 with an honours degree in Fine Art Painting. His paintings are partly imagined, observed and felt. There are strong reflections of mood, of an inner turmoil or tranquillity. There is an intense energy visible in the dense pattern of birds in flight in his compressed charcoal drawings. For Cotter both the sketches and the paintings are important, each feeding the other. The paintings acknowledge the energy of nature, and an exploration of planes of colour and media. It is through this exploration of media he conveys a turmoil or peace of both the land and the painter. Sean has won several awards including the, Kildare Touring Grant in 1996, The Arts Council/Aerlingus Arts Flight Award 1996, 1997 and in 2007 he won the Tyrone Guthrie Regional Bursary Award.

Stephen Johnston was born in County Down in 1987. His work explores the relationship between our humanity, changing culture, and the link between them. Currently he is experimenting by deconstructing some of society’s subjective principles of identity. Johnston paints by adopting an attitude of painting what he sees in this moment in time. Since graduating from the University of Ulster with a Fine and Applied Arts degree, Stephen has had his work displayed in the world-renowned Saatchi gallery and has won several awards including work of distinction at the RHA and the Towry Award at the National Open Art competition. Stephens work was once again selected for the annual RHA and RUA exhibitions in 2013.

Ian Pollock was born in 1975. Pollock, who lives in Dublin, is primarily a self-taught artist, working exclusively in bronze. His sculptures are cast using a 'cire perdue' {lost wax} method in ceramic shell moulds. Inspiration for his sculptures comes from aspects of daily life. Pollock sees his work ‘like a three dimensional diary’ and believes that 'good art should reflect the mood of the person that made it'. “I never limit myself to one subject or style of work and can never say where the work will go next, which makes it exciting for myself and I hope for the viewer. I like the fact that bronze is so permanent, a bronze sculpture is going to be around forever.” Pollock’s work has been exhibited and sold throughout Ireland and the UK, including the Oireachtas, RHA and the RUA where he won the Mullan Prize for sculpture in 2003. His work is in many private and public collections in Ireland the UK, Europe, the US and Canada.

Eamonn Ceannt has travelled extensively over the years including North Africa, the US, Iran, Afghanistan, Nepal and the Indian sub-continent and lived for a number of years in both East and West Africa. These overseas influences are reflected in his sculpture. His current work can be loosely classified into three groups – head studies, figurative and mythical studies and plant/animal pieces. His work is tactile and sensuous with an emphasis on form and the juxtaposition of soft curved surfaces and planes. The influence of native art is evident, mainly in his head studies, and in the variety of colour in the patinas of the finished pieces.