New work by Phyllis at the city’s Kenny Art Gallery – Connacht Tribune – Galway City Tribune:

New works by one of Ireland’s finest watercolourists, Phyllis Del Vecchio, will be on display at the city’s Kenny Gallery this Friday, March 4.

A longtime resident of Galway, Phyllis was born in Massachusetts, USA, and studied at the Boston Museum at the Fine Arts School and the Massachusetts College of Art. She taught, painted and exhibited in the United States until 1964. Then she came on holiday to Ireland and was so captivated by the ever-changing light and color that she moved.

Years later, she continues to draw inspiration from the landscape of the west of Ireland; by hedgerows, streams, boreans, wildflowers and trees, especially bog birches. Birds and wild animals feature in his work, with sometimes an abandoned cabin or an isolated fishing lodge offering the only sign of human presence.

Phyllis paints “pure” watercolors, in which light is reflected off the paper, after passing through various pigments. She uses white paper and applies transparent washes, one on top of the other, to obtain gradations of light and color.

His still life paintings are rich and warm in color, more like oils than watercolors – and this new exhibition features six oil works, a rarity from this artist.

The exhibition, which will be opened by filmmaker Lelia Doolan, also marks the launch of Kenny Gallery‘s new exhibition programme.

This is Kennys 55th annual lineup of events since opening the original gallery in Salthill in 1968 – the first free-standing gallery in the West of Ireland.

The 2022 exhibition schedule will run through January 2023 and will include exhibitions by painter Jim McKee (June-July), Vicki and Dominque Crowley (September-October), sculptor Liam Butler (August-September). There will be new ceramics by Jane Seymour and Mike Byrne in May and new paintings by Martina Furlong in April, as well as an exhibition of new paintings and graphics by Gertrude Degenhardt, which will open in November. There will be two collective exhibitions, one in July and the other in November, for Christmas.

The official opening of Phyllis Del Vecchio, New Paintings will take place at the Kenny Gallery, in Liosbán (H91 N5P8) this Friday March 4 at 6 p.m. It will continue from Monday to Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., until Tuesday, March 29.