IRISH FESTIVAL ART GALLERY

Saturday - Sunday, March 15 - 16, 2008

Upper Level, Center House

Connemara Copse, a painting by Ellen Coyle

IRISH ARTIST ELLEN COYLE

Ellen Coyle is an Irish artist living and working in Seattle. She attended the National School of Art and Design in Dublin, the Cooper Union in NYC, and the University of Washington. The following is a transcript by the artist about her work:

"I am an abstract landscape painter, interested in how our environment is shaped and changed by the varying forces of nature, sea, climate, man, and machine, and the places where we as humans and societal beings connect with those landscapes.

My paintings tell a story without words. Something is happening, or not happening, and I want the observer to travel on a journey, creating their own narrative from the images that I have given them. I want that journey to continue for the entire life of the painting with each new person who sees it, each story adding to the whole. I believe that the painting absorbs this energy or force and as such is different each time it is viewed.

I work with water color, acrylic, chalk and oil pastels. My recent paintings have been created using layers of paint and glaze which produce subtleties of color and tone as they build upon each other. It is through these layers that the narrative of the painting is achieved. My work often contains hidden or very subtle images that may not be immediately noticed. Color is vitally important to informing my work and I usually work in color 'Series'. Each painting finishes itself and I know instinctively when it is done."

For more information, visit www.ellencoyle.com.

JOHN COOPER’S ANTIQUE IRISH POSTCARDS

“About 20 years ago my wife and I made our first visit to Ireland and what an emotional experience….. I found home!!! So, since I was collecting postcards anyway, I started looking for views of Ireland and I was hooked. Not only were they interesting but whenever I needed more information about a view, I could do a search on the internet and email acquaintances I had made in Ireland….. “I have made no attempt at counting the number of Irish views I have but having all that good Irish blood in my veins, I advertise that I have ‘1,000’….. That is close enough for an Irishman….. They have certainly brought me closer to Ireland and I thoroughly enjoy looking through them and searching for information....”

You too will enjoy looking through John’s collection, on the Upper Level, Lobby Area.