On the Town: Poets, painters, primary school children and their parents all came to view an exhibition of original artwork from the poetry book, Something Beginning with P.
The paintings of Alan Clarke and Corrina Askin are now on view in the concourse of the County Hall in Dún Laoghaire. Alan Clarke's work "can be hard, darkly funny and sometimes brutal", said Emma Byrne, art director at O'Brien Press, which published the book. Clarke's evocative and funny drawings . . . stand alone without interfering, competing with or overruling the text," she added. Belfast-based Corrina Askin, who was unable to attend, paints characters who "are angled, ugly, beautiful and soft", said Byrne.
Ooops by Clarke was the image that caught the eye of Michael Lee, a senior news cameraman with RTÉ. "I think the quality of the work is exceptional," he said.
Alongside Clarke and Askin's work hangs the drawings and paintings of the children in the Monkstown Educate Together School and Scoil Colmcille. Seán Bean (7) pointed proudly to his pencil drawing of his rabbit. His mother, Patricia Byrne and his sister, Orlagh Bean (9), were nearby.
Some of the poets who feature in the colourful children's book, which has already been distributed by RTÉ to every primary school in the country, came to enjoy the event, including Celia de Fréine and Caitríona O'Reilly.
The collection of original work from Ireland's leading poets also "does confront social issues" said Cathal Goan, director general of RTÉ, when he opened the exhibition, referring in particular to the poems 'Sad' by Larry O'Loughlin and 'Leaving for a Nursing Home' by Pádraig J Daly.
The Something Beginning with P exhibition runs until Wed, April 6th