Clare Arts Office in conjunction with Cultúrlann Sweeney Library Gallery is delighted to present ‘Rineanna/Shannon Airport, images from the past’ a watercolour exhibition by Philip Brennan.
This is his 24th solo exhibition since 1982. His paintings are inspired by the landscape, sea, wildlife, music and history of County Clare, much heavily influenced by being an active naturalist. He has mainly exhibited locally, but also around Ireland, in Italy and the USA. He has published two books of his paintings and writing; ‘Clare’ (2002) and ‘Wanderings’ (2006) and illustrated ‘The Birds of Killarney National Park’ (1995).
In the past, he has occasionally featured themes involving aviation at Shannon. He began the present collection in 2019, with the idea of exploring the stories around the foundation of Shannon Airport, called Rineanna in the early days. Rineanna was intended as a seaplane/ land-based airport, so the subjects tackled in this show are diverse, from the building of the banks around the airport in the 1930’s, agriculture on the airfield, seaplanes, the first plane to land, right up to the Air Corps helicopters at present.
He was invited to show the exhibition at Shannon Airport in 2023 and this showing in Kilkee is the start of bringing it to other venues.
This free exhibition will run from the 23rd April to 24th May, 2024 inclusive and everyone is welcome!