Growing up on a small farm in Co Clare, Marie Connole was exposed to both the natural world and stories of the supernatural. Both have provided inspiration for Dúlamán na Farraige, her new exhibition of paintings at Clare Museum in Ennis. As its title suggests – Dúlamán na Farraige is the name of a variety of seaweed – her paintings feature images of the shore, but these are peopled by figures that seem more otherworldly than human.
“I’m from Liscannor, near the Cliffs of Moher,” says Connole. “All through my childhood, I was immersed in folklore. Everything in the environment – all the rocks and fields and trees – had a name or a story behind it, and that really colours your perspective of the landscape.
“One local legend described how a village called Kilstipheen was drowned in Liscannor Bay. It was said to rise and become visible for one day every seven years, and the story around it was that anyone who saw it would die. I was always intrigued by what it might it look like, so I made that the basis of the paintings in my last exhibition, Voyage to Kilstipheen.”
Connole says the paintings in Dúlamán na Farraige follow on from that. “There’s a mythological element to them as well. I live in Ennis now, but I go back to Liscannor all the time. I love walking on the shore, and I’m always photographing or filming the seaweed. I sketch it as well; when I’m drawing from life, it allows me to see and observe things that I might otherwise miss. The figures in my paintings are drawn from my imagination, but I like to think that when I paint the seaweed, it acts as an expression of human emotions.”
Painting seaweed is also a reflection of Connole’s interest in environmental issues. “Seaweed offers coastal protection,” she says. “It enhances marine biodiversity, and captures carbon, and it’s now being researched as a possible solution to climate change.”
Connole has invited the storyteller Eddie Lenihan to perform at her exhibition on 12th August, as part of National Heritage Week. “I only knew Eddie professionally before I rang him,” she says. “I’d been to see him perform as a seanchaí, and I’d read his books. I’ve always been impressed by the breadth of his knowledge, and his passion for Irish culture and folklore. I love how he brings it alive, and how he shares it with so many different audiences. He needs to be celebrated, because he’s such a beacon of Irish culture. When people hear his stories about people harvesting the seaweed as a fertiliser in the past, I think it’ll bring another layer of understanding to their experience of my paintings.”
Connole will unveil an educational poster on the same date. “This was commissioned by Creative Ireland. It shows different kinds of seaweed, based on direct sketches of the seaweed I gathered around the coast of Co Clare.”
The twenty-five paintings Connole has produced for Dúlamán na Farraige are all in watercolours, a medium she discovered in her teens. “When I was at secondary school, the Irish Museum of Modern Art toured an exhibition of contemporary art around the country, and one of the places it came to was Ennistymon. Some of Kathy Prendergast’s watercolours were hung in our school. There were women’s bodies, along with maps of the landscape. To me, aged seventeen, it was a revelation to see watercolours being used in that way, to convey really strong ideas around womanhood and the landscape.”
After school, Connole moved to Dublin to study at the National College of Art and Design. She graduated with a joint BA in History of Art and Fine Art. “And after that I lived in Galway for a while, but I knew I wanted to return to Co Clare. An opportunity came up through the Clare Arts Office, a bursary that allowed me to study for a two-year Masters Degree at the Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan, in 2005/06.
At NCAD, Connole had been doing very large abstract expressionist work, but when she came back to the Burren College of Art, she again moved into watercolours. “In Ballyvaughan, there was the sea on one side and the limestone mountains of the Burren on the other. I found myself being drawn to the idea of the tiny sea creatures that created the limestone. My work became physically smaller, and the details became more precise.
“I had a meeting with the artist Mick O’Dea, when he came to visit the college, and I remember him saying, embrace the detail in your work. That kind of opened up to me the path I could take as an artist.”
Connole’s Dúlamán na Farraige exhibition will tour to Cultúrlann Sweeney in Kilkee in November. From August 15, she will also be showing a series of paintings – commissioned under the Decade of Centenaries Arts Awards – at Scarriff Public Library.
“These are paintings inspired by the War of Independence and Civil War that I’ve created over the last three years. It’s the first time I’ve brought them all together for one exhibition.”
Connole lived in New Zealand for a time, after finishing her Masters, but she has never regretted returning to settle in Co Clare. “When you’re exposed to other cultures, as I was in New Zealand, you start seeing the similarities with your own,” she says. “I think that was when I really started connecting with Irish history and culture, which has become the big focus in my practice over the past fifteen years or so, and using it to connect more with my community.
“I think, with the advent of the internet, more and more artists are choosing to live in rural Ireland. The internet has definitely opened things up; I can have meetings online, and share my art through social media. It’s the best of both worlds, really.”
- Marie Connole’s exhibition Dúlamán na Farraige runs at Clare Museum, Ennis, Co Clare from August 1 – September 1. Eddie Lenihan’s storytelling event at 12pm on 12th August is ticketed, with limited seating. Further information: claremuseum.ie marieconnole.com Insta: marieconnole.art
