Hugh O’Donnell at work – July 2014
We’ve had an exciting and busy few months at the Lavelle Art Gallery this Summer. Our lovely old building on Main Street Clifden has been getting a makeover and it’s well underway. Work began in July with the inimitable work ethic of Mr Hugh O’Donnell who repainted the whole building in glorious Indian Palace yellow in just over a day. The gallery has been painted this colour since the early 1980’s and it just wouldn’t be right to choose any other, in fact bright yellow is a part of our identity that we are proud to preserve.
Our new shopfront was expertly built by Mr. Pat O’ Neill, a very fine craftsman from Ballyconneely who came highly recommended to us.
Our daughter Clementine observes the new shopfront going into place
The frontage was painted blue and our signage was installed by James Marshall from Signhere. The design was drawn up by the effortlessly talented Noel Mannion of Connemara Publications. We decided that our new look should convey both the traditional and contemporary aspects of our business as well as our professionalism, our approachability and our good humour ( we’ve got plenty to go around. ) Noel came up trumps with a fresh and bold design that incorporates our two favourite colours and our best loved quadruped, gallery friend and assistant ‘Snowy,’ visible below on the new sandwich board. The typeface is called Raleway and we have used it throughout our new website, stationery and signage. We have strong opinions at the Lavelle Gallery about good ( and bad ) typeface and we think this one is close to perfect.
Jamie prepares the lettering for the main sign
Although the day began well, it started to pour rain in the afternoon ( what else would you expect in Connemara ) while Jamie worked on tirelessly.
Jamie works on in the rain
The new swing sign was fitted as the light began to dwindle and still the rain poured on..looks like we’ve gone and left him to it!
Jamie fixes the swing sign into position
The shopfront is almost complete but not quite – we’ll bring you an update later this month when the final touches have been put in place.
Deborah Watkins
