The "Blind" Arch, Lynch's Castle, the Hooker fountain in Eyre Square, the old Claddagh. For over 40 years, Derek Biddulph has recorded images of Galway. He's our "visual diarist", says Tom Kenny of Kenny's Gallery.
The Dubliner was first inspired to paint when still resident in the capital. "I used to look into Combridge's window in Grafton Street and goggle at paintings by Frank Eglinton and Howard Knee," Biddulph says.
He had some artistic background: his grandfather was a monumental sculptor in Dublin's Pearse Street. Derek "dabbled" in oils for a while, he says, and became an amateur photographer. It was during a period of illness when he was confined to bed that his wife brought him a set of paints and he persisted - trying not to splash too many drops over the bedclothes.
Moving west, he staged his first Galway exhibition in Powells, The Four Corners. That was in 1970. By 1978 he was ready for the Kenny Gallery in Salthill, and from 1986 he has put on a show in Kenny's in Middle Street every two years. In the early 1980s he initiated the Galway School of Painting with fellow artist and set designer Dick Byrne, whom he met through the Taibhdhearc theatre.
By this time Biddulph had become more interested in watercolours than oils. Such was his success that he decided to give up his day job. Tom Kenny remembers how he got "the fright of my life", when the artist told him that he was turning professional and relying on Kenny's to sell his output. It worked. And now the Kenny Gallery is hosting a retrospective, entitled "Changing Galway", which opened last Friday and runs until next month.
Galway's continually busy social diary includes a performance this week by The Swingle Singers in the Town Hall - their only Irish concert this year. "Skin-tingling" is how a critic with the Straits Times of Singapore described them. Formed 30 years ago in Paris with a repertoire of classic baroque, the Swingles comprise eight highly talented vocalists whose range encompasses organ fugues, orchestral overtures and big band manoeuvres - all without accompaniment. "If it's music, we'll sing it" is their simple claim.
The current season includes a three-month tour in the US, Italy and Japan, followed by concert appearances in Europe, South Africa and South America. Hosted by Music for Galway, next Wednesday's concert promises Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, Dvorak, Lennon/McCartney, Tchaikovsky and what is billed as a "special surprise" for the Galway audience. Tickets were still available at time of going to press for £10 (£8 concession) from the Town Hall Theatre at (091) 569777.