The Arts Office are currently exhibiting work by resident artists; Sarah Delany, Rennie Buenting and Jen Donnery from Laois Arthouse Stradbally online as part of the Laois Bealtaine programme of events. The exhibition is titled “A Road Less Travelled” in memory of those who lost their lives in care settings during this tragic journey through the pandemic. Artists in residence at the Arthouse Stradbally were asked to respond to the theme of Caring and Sharing to create a piece of artwork for St Vincents Hospital Mountmellick, Abbeyleix District Hospital and St Brigids’ Hospital Shaen. Selection of the work was made by a panel from each of the hospitals. The artwork submitted as well as the selected pieces can be viewed online until the end of May to give people a chance to consider purchasing a piece for themselves or to donate to a Care Home of their choice in the county. Great credit goes to resident artist David Tully who curated and presented the online showcase.
Sarah Delany is an award-winning artist living in Laois. She began her artistic training at the Byam Shaw School of painting and drawing London graduating in Fine Art. Since then she has emerged as a gifted painter specialising in animals and landscape. Sarah intuitively applies her paint in thick broad, highly spirited brushstrokes that not only convey the essence of her subject but also highlights an artist who understands what paint is about. Sarah has exhibited widely in both England and Ireland and her work is held in public and private collections. She is currently a resident at Laois Arthouse Stradbally.
Rennie Buenting commenced her professional art career after many years of teaching in schools and education centres while running a thoroughbred racing stud farm. Rennie submerges herself in her subject and allows it to dictate the medium she uses. These include painting, printmaking, textiles, sculpture, installation, film and performance that deliver a unique experience of a space, a place, a cause, or a landscape, and often serve as a discussion platform. Rennie has been awarded numerous bursaries and residencies and has exhibited in Ireland, Scotland, and on the continent. In February 2021 she was awarded a month’s residency for the painting and song “Joya” in the Dunamaise Open Submission Exhibition. The two most popular exhibitions to date, The Magdalen Laundries and Where has all the sugar gone? (an exhibition about the cessation of the Irish Sugar Industry) include large installations and audience participation and attract much interest and discussion. Her work also features in the Prince of Wales’ art collection. ww.renniebuenting.weebly.com
Jen Donnery’s 2020 solo show Mater Materia took place in the Dunamaise Arts Centre; she was shortlisted for the DCCI Future Makers Awards in the same year. Her drawings, paintings and ceramic sculptures engage with themes of maternity, femininity, and the capacity of a woman’s body to produce and nurture human life. Donnery’s work has been selected for the 2019 Ceramics Ireland Selected Members Exhibition at Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin, and Sculpture in Context, 2019 & 2020, in the National Botanic Gardens. In 2017, she was awarded a residency at the Laois Arthouse for her work in the Dunamaise Open Submission Exhibition. www.jendonnery.com
For more info or to purchase a piece of work contact: E artsoff@laoiscoco.ie or T: 057 8664000 or visit www.laois.ie