My Studio on the top floor of the gallery
As our season reaches something of a lull during the back to school period, Gavin and myself are busy making work for two forthcoming exhibitions. Gavin is finishing some large paintings for an exhibition to be opened shortly in the Toradh Gallery in County Meath. Collectively, it is the largest body of work that he has produced since he developed his collage/painting technique about six years ago. Continue reading
This year is the first year that we are entering the Irish Times Best Shops in Ireland award 2015 and here is where you dear readers, can help – we would love to have your nomination!
All you have to do is click this link Best Shops in Ireland and fill in the nomination form.
Here’s the information you will need:
The Lavelle Art Gallery
Best Specialist Shop
County Galway
The rest is up to you 🙂
Post Script
Thanks to everyone who nominated us – we were delighted to have our photo featured in the Irish Times Magazine on Saturday 8th of August. Sadly, we did not make the shortlist but the competition was very stiff – over 3000 entries for a shortlist of just 100. All to play for again next year!
Gavin with friends Carol Anne Joyce and Kevin Griffin
We will remember this June Bank Holiday week end for a couple of reasons – firstly because it was the occasion of our much vaunted ‘relaunch party’ ( a plan we’ve had in the pipeline since we developed the gallery late last year ) and secondly because of the atrocious weather. I gasped when I read the forecast early last week and I tried desperately to find just one contradictory prediction but it all became a reality on Saturday night. Continue reading
Road works outside the Lavelle Art Gallery this week
Clifden has been a hive of activity this month in spite of the inclement weather.
It is the last few days of the Irish referendum on marriage equality and we are proud to have been engaged in promoting a YES vote in Clifden. We have ‘YES for Equality’ signs in the gallery window and Gavin and I took it upon ourselves to source some posters in Galway and put them up around town. There was a disappointing proliferation of NO placards that frankly made for a sorry sight each time we stepped outside the door. The YES campaign has been slow to mobilize here, perhaps because we are a small population and not therefore deemed worthwhile in terms of votes. Continue reading
James Hanley (RHA), Carey Clarke (RHA), Gavin Lavelle and Una Sealy (RHA) outside the Lavelle Art Gallery, Clifden
We’ve had some interesting visitors to the gallery recently – old friends and acquaintances that we don’t get the opportunity to meet often enough. Pictured with Gavin outside the Lavelle Art Gallery are RHA ( Royal Hibernian Academy ) artists James Hanley, Carey Clarke ( former president of the RHA ) and Una Sealy. They were part of a group of fifteen artists that were here for a life drawing residency, organised by mutual friend and RUA painter Rosie McGurran. Continue reading
Clifden came alive this Easter and although the rush has subsided, there is still a good energy about town as visitors continue to arrive and the sun continues to shine. People started arriving on Good Friday and by Saturday, the town was full. There was a fantastic energy on every street – people sipping coffee out of doors, restaurants busy with their new bills of fare, shoppers bustling in and out of doorways and not a free parking space in sight. Continue reading
Cover photo by ‘Aerial Eye‘
We woke to sunshine and blue skies in Clifden today, the 17th March, a notoriously unpredictable day on the weather front. In the last five years, we have had a couple of warm, dry St. Patrick’s day celebrations and at least two wet cold ones. 2013 was so wet, the parade had to be cancelled outright – I remember this particularly as my parents travelled from Dublin especially to see our girls in the parade. We had to make do with a low – key performance in our kitchen instead! Continue reading
( I am sharing this post from my painting blog deborahwatkinspaintings.com )
It’s the first week of March and temperatures have dipped again with no real sign of spring in Connemara just yet. This week saw our first real snowfall with spectacular drifts on the mountains and a heavy smattering of white along the valleys and roads. We’ve been hearing about the icy weather around the country for a while but our proximity to the coast has kept us just above freezing point. Continue reading
Here are our photographs as promised and this time taken by the professional – Aoife Herriott who lives and works in Connemara. Aoife came out to the gallery this week to shoot the outside of the shop ( and us ) and to take some photos of the interior. Continue reading
It’s been a long cold winter but spring is in the air at the Lavelle Art Gallery!
We are getting ready for a photo shoot this week and we are looking forward to showing off our brand new shopfront. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks searching for flowers ( not so easy in February ) but struck gold at the Dangan nurseries in Galway where they planted up my window boxes and baskets with a colourful array of primroses and variegated ivy. Continue reading