Donal Stack

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I am a working artist living in Banna, Ardfert. After graduating from the Crawford Municipal College of Art with a diploma in Fine Art in 1986, I was an art teacher at secondary level and at adult night classes for a period of five years. Working as an artist gradually took over from the teaching and I proceeded to take on various projects such as sign-writing, murals, illustration, graphics, decorative paint finish and commissions.

During the nineties I was involved in a number of group exhibitions at both Siamsa Tire and the Wellspring gallery in Tralee. I had my first solo exhibition at St John’s Art Centre in Listowel in May 2002 and then another during Listowel Writers week as one of the featured artists in 2005.

Illustration is an interest that I still pursue but painting is my first love and watercolour my favourite medium. Recent work has mainly featured the landscapes of North Kerry – my own backyard so to speak. It is a landscape that has been tamed and cultivated by generations of hardworking and resourceful farming families, each leaving its mark whether in the fields, structures, the houses and farm-buildings or the livestock breeds.

It is not a “dramatic” landscape but more a pastoral landscape. Its drama is in the detail. It is a transforming landscape; the vernacular architecture is being replaced by modern homes and hi-tech farm buildings. This is an inevitable process as was the replacing of stone farm buildings with corrugated iron sheds.

In these recent works, my role as an artist is to record, with some nostalgia, the landscape I grew up in ... a landscape that is forever changing.

Limited edition Gícleé prints of this beautifully illustrated map of North Kerry are available to buy from the artist. This visually stunning representation is an ink and watercolour painting that captures the beauty of North Kerry and would make a valuable and thoughtful gift, framed or unframed! Click the image for a larger view.

For further information, contact 086 4042286.

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