Tower and Town, October 2019 (view the full edition)Arts ReviewThis month will be the third exhibition where two artists share the gallery space at the White Horse Bookshop. Inspired by their shared love of County Donegal's northern coastline, (specifically the Fanad region), Paul and Clare Risoe, painter and ceramist, have produced a collection of work inspired by the beauty and natural formations of this wild stretch of coastline. 'There is a theme running through the paintings in this exhibition. Clare Risoe's ceramics are incredibly tactile and sensory. Working from her original drawings of shells found mainly on the shores of North Donegal, Clare's aim is 'to explore the rhythmic structures found in these shells, and interpret the form, texture and colour through modelling in relief forms.' Some of her pieces are abstractions from drawings of small sections of shells. The clay is modelled into a base shape, and then more clay is modelled into different shapes, sizes and thicknesses (to represent weeds and other rock pool findings) so that these can be added to the surface, therefore creating new textures. They are bright, colourful and pretty lifelike!  Collection of Ceramics  Strange Sleep  Fragment 3 Gabriella Venus |
In essence it is the 'Figure in the Landscape'. The figurative elements are the woman, the bird (inspired by recent events in Australia), the bones and stones found on the shore.' Taking inspiration from Surrealist artist Max Ernst, as well as the natural weathered rocks and stones along the shoreline, and the sounds and rush of the sea, Paul's paintings are unusual and enigmatic. The repetitive images of birds, a female body (but with two clearly defined heads) are present in nearly all of his paintings. They echo the bizarre, ethereal works of Kandinsky. Although strange and other worldly, these paintings somehow manage to work as a complete piece, rather than a single canvas comprising three different images.