Richard Hearnes

A solo painting exhibition by artist Richard Hearns opened at Sheen Falls Lodge in Kenmare, on March 1st and will run until April 1st. Since June 2006 Richard has been a resident artist and keeps a studio at the Mantua Art Project Centre in Bellingare, Co. Rosscommon.

Much of his work derives inspiration from his travels in Asia, North Africa, Canada and Europe. Since he divides much of his time between Thailand and Dublin, the Far East holds particular interest and is a recurrent subject for his work.

"I was born in Beirut and raised in Dublin and I now work between Ireland and Thailand," said Richard. "I think my paintings document a search for an idyll, driven by a deep spiritual sensibility that comes about because of my experiences and connections with three wildly differing locations - Beirut, Ireland and Thailand."

Paintings of rural life in Thailand are often executed with a palette of dusty browns, cobalt blues and brilliant yellows, communicating the sensual reality of the place and evoking the atmosphere, climate and rural culture with efficacy. In much of his work, there is a discernible sense of haste. His canvases are confident, highly textured, vigorous and devoid of any prissiness or affectation. They refuse to settle down, exhibiting a sense of urgency, a sense of being an excited dispatch from remote places.

"My connections with the three cultures combine to form a triangular history. Meditative layers are applied in a physical expression of form, drawn from the discipline of martial arts and the rhythmic nature of oriental life," explained Richard. "I believe that behind the search for paradise lies all the tender realities of life."

His delicate observations of barefoot monks congregating for prayer, in robes of various shades of traditional dark brown to familiar brilliant saffron, present an altogether more spiritual experience. Nevertheless, each canvas is testimony to the artist's insatiable appetite for visual stimuli and reveals the process of hyperactive free association out of which these tantalizing and enigmatic paintings are born.

It is the artist's unfaltering enthusiasm for his subjects that makes these paintings truly exquisite, beautiful and resolutely optimistic.

To view Richard's work please visit The Sheen Falls Lodge in Kenmare or call 064 41600 or