Friday 1 July – Friday 29 July
Closed Tuesday 12 and Wednesday 13 July
Time: 10am – 5pm (Monday – Friday)
Flax Gallery: Theatre at The Mill
Free Exhibition: No booking required
In My Halcyon Days, Norah is drawn back to the innocent days of childhood. Days of limitless possibilities free from the stress and worries that later life can bring. Days of seemingly endless summer without restrictions or inhibitions, without responsibilities and before the onset of that self-doubt that infects most artists once they decide to put themselves out there to be seen and judged by others.
About this work Norah said:
“Making this work could be said to be a form of mindfulness. In order to create as a child would, I had to empty my mind of all fears and doubts. Like in a lot of my work colour is paramount, something that resonates with children. My preference for abstraction allowed me to be freer in my compositions and working instinctively released my inner child whose creativity was bounded only by my adult artistic experience”
NORAH BRENNAN
Born in London, Norah grew up in County Mayo. She originally studied and worked as a catering manager but left that profession to study at GMIT, Galway’s Centre for Creative Arts and Media, where she
graduated in 2011 with a BAFA (First Class Honours.) specialising in Printmaking. On graduating she won the Galway Print Studio Annual Bursary and remained a member there until its closure in 2018. She works from her own studio workshop: Cló sa Chró in Claremorris and is a member of Limerick Printmakers.
Norah has had a number of solo shows in Ireland and Northern Ireland, numerous group shows throughout Ireland and the UK, and in France, Australia, Bangladesh, America and Japan and has been selected for many juried exhibitions including “RDS Student Awards, “Impressions” Galway Arts Festival. “Cairde Visual”, The Model, Sligo, “Legacy”, Hyde Bridge Gallery, Sligo and “Artform”, Waterford.
She has completed residencies in Wales in 2015 and 2017 and in rural Kenya early in 2020. Norah teaches art workshops, mainly in printmaking, bookbinding and painting. Her work is in the state collection of the Office of Public Works, the National University of Ireland, Mayo and Roscommon County Councils and private collectors.
Making art allows her to emotionally engage with the defining moments of her life as well as face the changes and challenges that the passing of time brings. At the same time, it facilitates creative expression and engagement with the world around her. Abstraction leads Norah to work instinctively, allowing this instinct to kick in and take her where it will, on a journey of creativity, discovery and learning.
Gallery
