LIMERICK CITY GALLERY OF ART — A young people’s guide to the permanent collection

ed. Mike Fitzpatrick; text by Ciara Finnegan

ISBN 978 0948037 153     72 pages (paperback)  17x16 cm    58 illus    glossary

The Permanent Collection of Limerick City Gallery of Art contains works representative of developments in Irish painting from the 18th century through to the present day, and includes a wide range of drawings, sculpture and mixed-media works. This guide is designed to act as a stimulus for young people and their educators to study and discuss some of the wonderful work in the collection.

It takes the very accessible form of a narrative delivered by the Poet Ryan, a wise-looking character who has been part of the collection for many years (featuring in a painting by Jack Donovan). He guides the reader and viewer through the collection, describing a representative sample of the works on the walls by 30 artists, including Paul Henry, William Orpen, Walter Osborne, William Leech, Evie Hone, Seán Keating, Jack B Yeats, Camille Souter, John Shinnors, Dorothy Corss, Michael Mulcahy and Willie Doherty. There is an individual text on each artist and their featured work. It is intended that in using the guide, the information and suggestions in the book will simply act as a springboard for children’s own ideas, and to this end there are a range of activites to stimulate their responses to what they see in the collection.

EXTRACT

"Let’s visit a painting by a local artist, Walter Verling. Born in New Ross, Co Wexford, in 1930, Walter Verling now lives and works in Limerick. As well as supporting a career as a professional artist, Verling spent many years teaching in the art department of Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, where he lectured to generations of primary school teachers. Looking at Goat Island you notice figures strolling along the sand, suggested in a simple series of brushstrokes. With only a few strokes of colour, in a style reminiscent of the Impressionist painters (such as Claude Monet or Pierre Auguste Renoir), the artist provides us with enough information to ‘fill in the details’ and complete the image. If you look closely at Goat Island you will find a scored line running horizontally across the picture, several inches from the top of the board. Verling, dissatisfied with the composition, decided to chop off the part of the painting above this line. However, he later reconsidered, leaving us to enjoy the grass-flecked cliff-tops. Try using your hand to block off the part above the scored line. (Cutting off pieces in this way is called ‘cropping an image’.) Now as you view the picture, do you agree with Verling’s decision to include the cliff-tops? I find it very interesting to see such an explicit exposure of the doubts and questions a painter entertains as they attempt to create a harmonious composition.
          You may like to assess other works in this way as we travel around the exhibition. You can create a viewfinder by making two Ls with the thumb and forefinger of each hand, and crossing them to make a rectangle. Try altering the size of this rectangle to crop and reframe the paintings. Several of Verling’s paintings are represented in the Limerick City Gallery collection. You may wish to have a look at Sky II, which depicts frothing cumulus clouds rushing across a vast sky, and compare this painting with the more tranquil Sky I. We shall also study some of Walter Verling’s drawings on our journey through the collection."

— text by Ciara Finnegan