Vivid and surreal work in new show from TJ Miles at the Kenny Gallery

Date Published: {J}

The official opening of Racing For The Mark, an exhibition of new paintings by Antrim artist TJ Miles will take place at The Kenny Gallery, Liosbán Retail Park, Tuam Road, Galway, this Saturday, March 12 at 2.00pm sharp and will be followed immediately by a painting demonstration with the artist. All the proceeds from this will go to the Galway Hospice Foundation.

These colourful exhibitions in Racing for the Mark are mostly surreal landscape drawings, reflecting the artist’s involvement with Ireland and with Spain where he spends much of his time.

There is a naïve quality about TJ Miles’ paintings, a sort of combination of simple images, unusual shapes, bright colours, bold brushstrokes and enthusiasm. His world is one of fantasy and imagination – warm, welcoming cottages, winding lanes, fishing boats – lost of human influence but no human beings.

TJ Miles was born in County Antrim in 1965 and left school at 16 to begin his working life. After a variety of positions, he went back to part-time education and studied art, psychology and sociology before returning to art in 1993 to fulfil his need to record experiences living in Northern Ireland. He started off working in watercolours, before progressing to acrylics which allowed him greater flexibility.

Before that, he had working with woodturning and later progressed to clock-making, using all manner of materials, though he most enjoyed working in slate and copper.

As he progressed, TJ’s art became more adventurous and more surreal, influenced mostly by European artists René Magritte, Giorgio De Chirico and Salvador Dali. More recently, he has returned to a more abstract and naïve style with more traditional images influenced by fellow Northern Ireland artists, Markey Robinson and J B Vallely.

His current work reflects a traditional Irish mural world – a kind of reversion of images of childhood. As a professional yachtsman, much of his life has been spent travelling abroad, which has given him a unique perspective on his native country.

TJ has previously exhibited in his hometown of Lisburn in Antrim, in Belfast and in the Kenny Gallery. His work is also in the Fusion Gallery in Altea, Spain. His paintings are now in private collections in Ireland, UK, France, Italy, Australia and the USA. In between painting and sailing he teaches disabled and youth groups in both areas – that of sailing, as well as arts and crafts.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.