Contact Information
Background Timeline of Project
July 2004
Steffan Jones-Hughes from the Regional Print Centre in Wrexham, and Jeanette Orrell, both visual artists based in Denbighshire, visit Ireland on a CCAT Interreg Go and See grant from Aberystwyth Arts Centre to look at making connections with arts organisations and artists in Ireland. One of the first people to get in touch is Lucina Russell, Arts Officer for County Kildare, who makes the connection with Leinster Printmaking Studio and Margaret Becker. They arrange to meet and discuss the possibility of developing a collaborative project between Welsh and Irish printmakers. After the initial Interreg funded visit to Ireland a group was established to try to raise funds for more exchange.
March 2006
Members of Leinster Printmaking Studio contact Steffan Jones-Hughes with a view to taking the project forward. Monica de Bath, Irish Project Coordinator, secures CCAT funding from Temple Bar to enable a visit over to Wales. Monica de Bath, Eilish McCann, Alison Craig, Jane Copeman, and Steffan Jones-Hughes meet at Galeri in Caernarfon. The project begins to take shape. A formal initiation process takes place where artists from Wales are linked to artists from Ireland and told to “communicate and see what happens!”
September 2006
As a result of taking part in a residency at the Regional Print Centre, Yale College, Wrexham, Australian artist Veronica Calarco becomes involved in the project. Linda Davies, Alison Craig and Veronica visit Ireland. They visit the Leinster Printmaking Studio, (L.P.S.) for an afternoon of discussion with about 10 interested prospective participants. This is followed by a visit to the home of Leinster Printmaking Studio member Una Collins, who provides a warm reception. The next day they visit Monica de Bath’s studio.
October 2006
Discussions are followed by exchange visits between artists from both studios.
March 2007
One of the artists involved, Alison Craig, had been a part of our Professional Printmakers Programme at the Regional Print Centre. She takes on the role of project coordinator from the Welsh side. Alison works initially in partnership with Steffan, and latterly more on her own, to develop funding applications and exhibition opportunities. The project successfully secures funding from Wales Arts International and a-n magazine.
August 2007
Diana Williams and Eirian Llwyd visit Ireland as a result of the WAI funding. The project is included in the Regional Print Centre publication, International Projects 2002-2007
October 2007
A group of Welsh artists, Steffan Jones-Hughes, Jeanette Orrell, Andrew Smith, Linda Davies and Alison Craig travel to Ireland and visit the Leinster Printmaking Studio. They meet and discuss the project with the Irish artists and Geraldine O’Reilly, artist & printmaker, who had acted as curator at the beginning of the project thanks to CCAT Interreg Temple Bar funding secured by Monica de Bath. A number of visits are made by the Welsh artists to the Graphic Studio Gallery, the Original Print Gallery, Rubicon Gallery, Gallery of Photography, Irish Museum of Modern Art, & National Museum of Ireland. During this period a number of workshops take place at the two print studios to enable artists to meet and explore their ideas.
February 2008
Margaret Becker, Eileen Keane and Pamela de Brí travel to Wales to meet Diana Williams and Eirian Llwyd at Eirian s house on Anglesey. They then make their way across Wales, visiting Oriel Ynys Môn and Llanberis in Snowdonia, to meet Linda Davies, Steffan Jones-Hughes, Ian Williams and Jane Copeman at the Regional Print Centre
April 2008
A publication is produced in Ireland to promote the project. This is funded by a combination of sources including CCAT.
May 2008
An exhibition of work in progress is held at the Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge, County Kildare, and the publication is launched. Andrew Smith and Alison Craig return to Ireland with work for the exhibition. This exhibition is made possible through the support of Lucina Russell, Arts Officer for County Kildare, who opens the exhibition and who had helped to broker the initial relationship between the two studios. Monica de Bath gives a welcoming talk in Irish and English, and Alison Craig responds (in English) for the Wales-based artists with Diana Williams providing an on-the-spot translation into Welsh. Musicians playing traditional Irish music complement the opening evening. The following day, groups of local schoolchildren visit the exhibition and hear an informal talk by the artists Eileen Keane and Linda Davies, from Ireland and Wales respectively. Pamela de Brí takes part in an interview on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta
June 2008
A blog is set up on a-n (artists’ newsletter) website
September 2008
Pamela de Brí becomes Irish Project Coordinator. Monica de Bath continues to be involved in the project.
Veronica Calarco applies for the exhibition to be part of Country Arts South Australia touring exhibition programme. Following Veronica’s proposal the project is selected as the international component of the 2009/10 Country Arts touring programme. Over a period of 18 months, from June 2009 until December 2010, the project will be viewed in over 15 Galleries in South Australia.
December 2008
The participation of Australian artist Veronica Calarco results in a number of the artists being included in the Celtica Festival in Port Adelaide, South Australia, in December 2008. (Artists included are Alison Craig, Andrew Smith, Deirdre Shanley, Pamela de Brí, Eileen Keane, and Rebecca Homfray.).
March 2009
Completed prints from the project are shown at the Graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin. This is as a result of connections made by Margaret Becker, who is also a member of the Graphic Studio. The exhibition is selected by manager, and renowned printmaker, Robert Russell and Catherine O' Riordan. This exhibition represents a summary of the project as it stands and provides a focus for reflection and evaluation. Alison Craig, Pamela de Brí and Graphic Studio member Liam O Broin all give “Artist Talks” at the opening. A transcript of Liam’s speech can be found on the Dublin Graphic Studio Gallery website. An article appeared in Golwg (Welsh Current Affairs Magazine) featuring Eirian Llwyd and Diana Williams. Pamela de Brí is invited onto the panel of Imeall on TG4 - Irish language television channel, and the project is featured on that programme. It is also included in the Irish Arts Review.
June 2009
First exhibition of Le Chéile in Australia opens in Elliston, SA
July 2009
There is an exhibition at the Alternative Entertainment Arts Centre, Tallaght, Co Dublin.
A catalogue of the Australian exhibition, prepared and designed by Veronica Calarco, is launched.
August 2009
Pamela de Brí travels to Wales in August to meet Veronica Calarco, while she is on a visit. Alison Craig meets Pamela and they travel together to meet Veronica and Jane Copeman at Andrew Smith's house in Harlech. Alison also takes Pamela to the Eisteddfod in Bala where they meet Diana Williams. The following day Ian Williams meets Pamela and Alison at Alison's house. A project specific blogspot is established by Pamela de Brí to showcase the artists involved in the project. Much of the information on the artists is drawn from the catalogue compiled by Veronica for the Country Arts S.A. touring exhibitions.
www.lecheileprintproject.blogspot.com
Second exhibition of Le Chéile in Australia opens in Jamestown, SA
October 2009
A residential organized by Alison Craig takes place at Nant Gwrtheryn. Four artists from Ireland and six from Wales meet for 4 days and work intensely, bringing the project to the next stage.
November 2009
Artists involved in Le Cheile feature again as part of Celtica 2009, Celtic Roots II, in Port Adelaide, South Australia. Andrew Smith goes to Australia to meet Veronica Calarco and see the exhibition. He runs a workshop and makes further connections. Pamela de Brí, Alison Craig, and Andrew Smith and Veronica all have work on show.
The Le Chéile project opens in the prestigious New Land Gallery, Port Adelaide on 27th Nov and continues there until January 17th 2010. Celtic band, Blind Mary, play and the opening is well attended and highly praised. Other galleries are now taking an interest.
January 2010
Exhibition opens at Rhyl Library Arts Centre.
October 2010
Residency at Cill Rialaig, Co Kerry
September 2011
Exhibition in Oriel Ynys Mon
Frances Carlile
I lived in rural Mid Wales for twenty five years and now live on the boarders of Powys. The Welsh landscape has always been part of my work both in sculpture and print. I have recently begun to make prints based on imaginary fairy tales and myths. Myths and legends are a universal language and belong to everyone. I am hoping to make links with Welsh and Irish traditional stories inorder to inform my work.
I think of landscape in terms of space, as a backdrop, an arena or a stage. Within this arena an imaginary protagonist could be enacting a solitary drama. The protagonist could be present in the form of an animal, person or tree, or absent with the stage empty. The beginning and end of the narrative are not important for the work, although sometimes I construct a series of images that could be set in sequence. The work is about quietness, solitude and absence.
Tara Dean
Report from Australia: Le Chéile at the New Land Gallery, Port Adelaide
Le Chéile looks excellent in the New Land Gallery, Port Adelaide. It is the premier art space in Port Adelaide, a short drive from the city. The streets of Port Adelaide are wide and spacious leading to the harbour and waterfront where the New Land Gallery is located.
The gallery has a high ceiling with good lighting, a foyer space with the exhibition title Le Chéile written high up as visitors enter the building and print works leading into the main space. 123 works are showing by 17 participants from the start of the project and includes recent new participants. The selection process by Veronica Calarco, Rob Johnson (Visual Arts Manager, Country Arts SA) and Katinka Gleim (Visual Arts Officer) has really worked in creating a consolidated exhibition out of the many the different collaborations, ideas and processes. Additional work by each artist is presented in a highly visible print browser. At the time of writing there are two sales from the exhibition (Steffan and Veronica). The exhibition’s coherency is helped by the combination of several works in large frames; often, but not always collaborative partners are framed together creating a substantial wall presence. Other works, mostly the larger prints are also in individual frames. The artists books and folios are displayed clearly in cases, with one sketchbook accessible to touch. The private view was well attended. Vicky Reynolds, Head of Printmaking at TAFE School of Arts opened the show talking about process and printmaking with a musical performance by Irish band Blind Mary.
The exhibition has shown in Elliston Community Hall, Jamestown Belalie Art Gallery, Bordertown Civic Centre Walkway Gallery and will continue to Roxby Downs Regional Gallery and continues its tour well into 2010 throughout South Australia. I was able to visit the Riddoch Art Gallery in Mount Gambier with Rob Johnston and Katinka Gleim whilst installing another show Parallel at Mellicent Art Gallery, both towns located toward the Victoria Border in the South East of the State. The Riddoch Art Gallery is run by Lucia Pichler, SA South East Director and Lucia gave a tour of the gallery and the Gooch collection of Aboriginal art from Utopia (aboriginal country near Alice Springs). The collection consists of 2D and 3D work by, mainly, living and recent contemporary aboriginal artists and is a rich and diverse collection. The Riddoch also has a national collection of contemporary art making a comprehensive selection of Australian art with artists such as Ian Abdullah and Ann Newmarch. The photograph features Lucia Pichler and myself in front of a large triptych by John Beard (painter born Wales 1945) one of the paintings in the collection. Le Chéile will be touring to the Riddoch when it reopens after rebuilding later 2010.
With the touring programme organised by Country Arts SA Le Chéile is reaching a wide audience as it travels throughout South Australia. The exposure in this substantial exhibition form adds to the central theme of the project, that of distant communication through printmaking; ideas flow between art work and exhibition viewer as individual and cultural connections are discovered and reinvented. The exhibition has been reviewed in Imprint, December 2009 edition.
There are plenty of visitors to Port Adelaide throughout the week and at weekends, particularly during festivals. The Celtica festival has attracted a large audience over this weekend (5 and 6th December). Organised by Suzanne Laslett it showcases performers with Celtic heritage and association, musicians on two stages, numerous stalls, Scotland focus, Welsh and Irish language classes, food stalls, traditional dancing, demonstrations of musical instruments and an impressive line up of bands including Rickety Bridge and Bric a Brac, the Melbourne based band with strong Brittany connections. The visual art element of Celtica was comandingly inaugurated by bagpipes leading all from the Gaff gallery to the . The exhibitions include Wales and Ireland Le Chéile participants.
Thanks must go to Veronica Calarco for instigating the Australian participation in Le Chéile and putting together the proposal for exhibition; Rob Johnston and Katinka Gleim for selecting and organising the touring exhibition and Suzanne Laslett for organising the Celtica festival with visual art element (coordinated again by Veronica) creating a strong Wales/Ireland art presence in Port Adelaide at the moment.
Charles Hulgraine
Feedback from Nant Gwtheyrn
Ros: Enjoyed the printing very much. The food was great, the work was good and the company wasn't too bad, I especially liked the goat. It was very motivational and well organized. Thanks.
Margaret: Arriving in Nant was daunting! down a long corkscrew very steep road, you feared you might never climb up again! so with the feeling of being trapped, we cautiously approached the 3 days incarceration!
Pamela: Nant Gwtheyrn provided the ideal location to kick-start the next phase of the collaboration. The inspirational landscape, along with comfortable accommodation and abundance of food all combined to facilitate the creation of collaborative work.
Riverbank Arts Centre May 2008
In May 2008 a three-week exhibition was held at Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge, Co Kildare, Ireland, which showcased work in progress from this exciting collaboration. A promotional publication was also launched at the exhibition.
Le Chéile Background
The collaboration was initiated in August 2004 when Steffan Jones-Hughes, from the Regional Print Studio in Wrexham, visited Ireland on a CCAT Interreg Go and See grant. He met with Margaret Becker in the Leinster Printmaking Studio and they talked about the potential for some sort of print exchange. In October 2006 discussions were followed by exchange visits between artists in both studios.
The seed for this project lay with John Berger's account of his communication through drawing with Marisa Camino. They found the lack of a common (verbal) language an advantage. Twinning with a Welsh partner we began a similar dialogue, where some of us have tried to communicate only through the image. Themes of land, language and place emerged as starting points for this dialogue. It has been both an invigorating and a challenging experience. The work was, and continues to be exchanged by email or post, in notebooks or as first proofs.
What makes this collaboration especially different is the fact that the artists are not working in the same physical space and therefore the work is produced sequentially. There is no face-to-face communication, no interruptions of dialogue, no discussion, and no immediate response. The collaborating artist responds to the work in front of him/her. The work develops at a distance, slowly. Therefore, because of this delayed response, the project is a long term one which is now entering its next phase.
New participants have come on board in Ireland, in Wales and now in Australia. This next phase, while encouraging continued collaborations between established partners, consists of opening up the project to elicit responses to any image by any of the artists, thus encouraging visual dialogue between any two, three or group of participants.
Eileen Keane
I live in Newbridge, Co. Kildare which is about 25 miles south of Dublin but I was brought up in the west of Ireland in Roscommon. I moved to Kildare after college when I got a fulltime job teaching in Naas and I have lived in Kildare ever since, got married there and have two children. I was mainly involved in painting up to 1997, that year I attended a course in the National College of Art and Design and was introduced to printmaking by Taffina Flood of the Graphic studio. I liked the technical aspect of it and the unexpectedness of the results and I joined the Leinster Printmaking studio when it was set up in 1998. I work mostly with carborundum and collograph as it suits the textural quality of my work but sometimes combine this with photoetch especially in the use of text.
My work is inspired by organic forms abstracted mainly from landscape studies. I am interested in the linear quality of openings in natural surfaces that suggest layers beneath of time and history. I use a layering of textures in much of my work, and at the moment have used formal rectangular shapes to frame textural areas and create a kind of window effect. When I started working with my welsh twin Linda on the idea of home and memory we started with maps and I began to work on imagery inspired by the bog near my home- Mouds bog- exploring its physical presence through making collographs from materials found on the bog and also its history of burial rituals and its inspiration for poets such as Seamas Heaney. I used a map of this bog in several of the pieces and also some text to represent memories or to give the bog its own voice in language.
I am also a writer and am very interested in words and language. I am fairly fluent in Gaelic but do not speak it at home and was very interested to see how much the welsh language is part of everyday life in Wales as I assumed it was the same as here with only a few isolated places speaking Gaelic every day. This project has widened the scope of my work with a broader use of ideas, from texture to text and mapping and has given me an interest in making more artists books as this was something I discussed with Linda and she sent me some information on technical aspects. I look forward to developing these ideas further over the course of the next year.
Margaret Becker
Margaret was born in Dublin, grew up in Ireland and attended the National College of Art, Dublin. Graduated with teachers certificate, moved to Rome for a one year residency, attending the free school of painting and joined an toir gloinne stained glass studio and worked on commisions for stained glass windows throughout Ireland, England and America. Joined graphic studio Dublin, and studied printmaking with John Kelly and Liam O'Brion. Awarded Biennal prize for print in Listowel Writers week , Co. Kerry; awarded 1st prize for stained glass panel at international exhibition celebrating the centenary of "The Messenger " magazine , in Dublin; has exhibited in major exhibitions in Ireland, Holland, Belgium, France and USA. Moved to Clane, Co. Kildare and founded the Leinster print studio in 1998. Recently illustrated book of poetry by Desmond Egan with silk screens. Now lives and works from her studio in Loughanure, Clane, Co. Kildare
I like printmaking, as it is a "hands on" medium, like stained glass, there is the visual and the practical involvement, which is exciting and appealing to me. The collaboration with the welsh printmakers has opened up numerous doors, both artistically and culturally, leading to other international printmakers becoming involved with our studio, which will lead on to future exhibitions with many more print makers, which is more then we thought would happen when we started the venture.
Don Braisby
Much of my early childhood was spent with my grandparents in the Scottish Borders. My parent’s home was in Gloucestershire on the South Wales Borders. I am now living in the border country of North Wales. I have sense of comfort in living on the borders always being drawn towards the Celtic, which I believe is a state of being rather than a place.
In my work as an artist print maker I’m drawn into exploring the area between conscious and unconscious, the borderland state of hypnagogia the world between the dream and the waking.
As a printmaker I find an excitement, in that in that once a mark is started I’m committed to following it to its completion. The listening place is where self and non self meet. I create images using a variety of printmaking techniques watching and responding to the image as it emerges. The mark making process has a level of unpredictability that means that no print is identical. Plate making has a sculptural and sensuous quality the image is explored intuitively being uncovered and exposed. The print is a shadow memory of the creative journey. It is said that every external journey has an internal reflection. My work is a personal record of my exploration of self and other, through journey and place. The narrative is articulated using the language of abstraction and metaphor.
The finished work requires a viewer. In fact the image demands to be seen as this is how it becomes alive. This is when a new narrative is forged between the image and others viewing it. The relationship developed between the image and viewers depends on an interplay and resonance between the image the viewers and their memories, dreams and experiences. The title of a piece may direct the viewer to make a specific relationship with it. I prefer the the relationship between the viewer and my work to be unmediated by titles, the ones I provide should be seen as my introduction of the image to the viewer. Roland Barthes describes what he calls the punctum in pictures it is an unintentional point in a picture that captures a viewer and arrests the gaze that was not intended by the by the artist. The punctum is the tiny shock, a satori a moment of connection.
Veronica Calarco
I grew up in a small town in East Gippsland, Victoria in a big family. Escaping as soon as possible, over the next thirty years I achieved my aim of living in every state in Australia and studying printmaking at the ANU, ACT. Whilst at uni I became involved in working in community arts and continued as a community artist in the ACT for the next decade, working at Megalo Access Arts (a printmaking access facility) and coordinating shields as part of Women In Action (a series of workshops and exhibitions of approximately 600 women’s work) and working with the Multicultural Arts Office and DADA, curating exhibitions and coordinating arts projects, doing technical assistant work for artists and completing an artist in residence at Parliament House, ACT. During this period I participated mainly in group exhibitions in Australia, France and Asia (I was accepted as a member of the Asia Fibre Art Exhibition). In 2002 I moved to the Kimberley in Western Australia to work for the Kimberley Language Resource Centre and in 2003 to Alice Springs to managed an Arts Disability project and run an Aboriginal Art Centre, where I became involved in the art community and began again to focus on my own artwork, participating in several group shows. In 2004 I decided to focus full-time on my art, travelling between Wales and Australia; moving to Port Adelaide and continuing with group exhibitions and participating in artist-in-residence programs: Thirning Villa, Ashfield Council, Sydney, Regional Print Centre, Wales, United Kingdom, Digital Weaving, working with Vibeke Vestby in Norway and Grindell Hut, Flinders Ranges.
Moving to the Kimberley’s was significant for my work and the way I viewed my work – for the first time in my life I faced true isolation and was confronted directly by the harshness of a misused environment. I had no equipment with which to work (as a printmaker and weaver I had always used presses or looms) and had not developed a language to speak of what I was seeing and experiencing. To find a language and to try to get some understanding of my experiences I began to sew on bandages as a way of developing my own symbols of the Kimberley. Gradually I began to find a language in which to express myself through the use of landscapes and mudmaps. I completed a series of mudmaps that were drawn for me to show me areas in which I could go walking and camping. These ‘maps’ are woven in a double-cloth pick-up. In 2004 I started learning Welsh and was told that Mae drwgg gen i (I’m sorry) meant ‘it is sorrow I have’ (literally translated is: ‘it is badness I have’). The words ‘it is sorrow I have’ sum up my feelings of the land we live in and what has been done to it. I am currently attempting to portray this feeling in my images, looking at the marks we leave on the land.
Whilst living in North Wales, taking Welsh lessons, I met Steffan Jones-Hughes (coordinator of the Regional Print Centre) who invited me to do an artist in residence. Le Chéile was just beginning and on being invited to join, I headed over to Ireland with Linda Davies and Alison Craig to meet the Irish mob. Arriving back in Australia I continued to work with Andrew Smith for the project and in 2008 met Rob Johnson from Country Arts SA and thus the idea for Le Chéile to come to Australia was born.
Alison Craig
Alison Craig was born and brought up in Britain: her father is a Scot from Aberdeen, and her mother was English. Alison has drawn and painted all her life, and after working for many years in the National Health Service she became a full-time artist. She moved to rural North Wales in 1990.
“My work is grounded in my love of observational drawing, a process which allows me to investigate my surroundings and experience them more intimately. Using the traditional disciplines of painting, drawing & printmaking, I record my responses to the subject rather than trying to depict it with clinical accuracy. Most of my current work derives from my interest in the natural world and, specifically, in the countryside around my home in rural North Wales where the land has been shaped by the weather and the activities of humankind through the ages. The curves of the hillsides and the interlocking patterns of the field boundaries combine under the influence of the changing seasons to provide a unique landscape. The countryside is at once ever-changing and everlasting: the evidence of past centuries is all around us, and the land will survive in some form even after the depredations of its present occupants. It is this sense of continuity which drives my desire to explore the landscape.”
