New work from Phyllis at city’s Kenny Art Gallery

New work from one Ireland’s finest watercolourists, Phyllis Del Vecchio, will go on show in the city’s Kenny Gallery this Friday, March 4.

A longtime Galway resident, Phyllis was born in Massachusetts, USA, and studied at the Boston Museum in Fine Arts School and the Massachusetts College of Art. She taught, painted and exhibited in the USA until 1964. Then, she came on holidays to Ireland and was so enthralled by the constantly changing light and colour here that she relocated.

Years on, she continues to be inspired by the West of Ireland landscape; by hedgerows, streams, boreens, wildflowers and trees, particularly bog birches. Birds and wild animals feature in her work, with an occasional abandoned cottage or remote fishing lodge offering the only sign of human presence.

Phyllis paints ‘pure’ watercolours, in which the light is reflected from the paper, having passed through various pigments. She uses white paper and applies transparent washes, one over another, to obtain gradations of light and colour.

Her still-life paintings are rich and warm in colour, more like oils than watercolours – and this new show includes six works in oils, a rarity from this artist.

The show, which will be opened by filmmaker Lelia Doolan, also marks the launch of the Kenny Gallery’s new programme of exhibitions.

This is the 55th annual events line-up from Kennys’ since the original gallery opened in  Salthill in 1968 – the first stand-alone gallery in the West of Ireland.

The 2022 calendar of exhibitions will continue through to January 2023 and will include shows from painter Jim McKee (June-July), Vicki and Dominque Crowley (September-October), sculptor Liam Butler (August-September). There will be new ceramics from Jane Seymour and Mike Byrne in May and new paintings from Martina Furlong in April, as well as an exhibition of new paintings and graphics from Gertrude Degenhardt, opening in November. There will be two group shows – one opening in July and the other in November, for Christmas.

The official opening of Phyllis Del Vecchio, New Paintings will take place at the Kenny Gallery, in Liosbán (H91 N5P8) this Friday, March 4, at 6pm. It will continue Monday to Saturday, 9am-5pm until Tuesday, March 29.