Clare Arts Office in conjunction with the Clare Museum presents “Famine, fields & fish” by Lionel Coates at the Clare Museum, Ennis, Co. Clare from the 15th March to the 14th April, 2022.
Having worked in the UK as a lecturer in Further and Higher Education, Lionel retired to the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Gozo to live and to paint. Thirteen years later Lionel and his wife decided to move to his familial homeland, the island of Ireland. Here, Lionel has found a totally different colour palette is needed, in order to capture a totally different environment.
This collection of paintings digs into the past of the people, as they struggled with the catastrophe of famine, trying to keep body and soul together through the hardest of times. It looks at the people, the ruins of their hopes and homes, and the land and water from which they took what they could. It is not just a tale of desolation, though, since mankind’s driving imperative is surely to confront and banish adversity.
Enquiries to Lionel Coates lionelcoates@outlook.com