Remnants of time in artist’s American show

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Remnants of time in artist's American show

Tess Felder

Kilkenny People December 5, 2008

A NEW exhibition of paintings by local artist Eamon Colman has opened at the Cecille R. Hunt Gallery at Webster University in the US city of St Louis, Missouri. The resident of Coolcullen is also hosting a series of lectures in Webster University on his work as the exhibition continues until December 19.

Entitled 'Remnant', this exhibition of new large -scale paintings by the artist, relates to fragments of time, of memory in particular, to fragments of torn clothing left as reminders of foreign loved ones, of ailments, wishes and hopes on rag trees and at holy wells found throughout Ireland. He alludes too to his own painting process whereby he layers his marks through colour and rubs it back, leaving only slight remains of the original to distort perspective and to attain an other-worldliness. The original then remains rubbed out on his cloths that lie on the studio floor.

This work explores the relationship between behaviour and experience and how people react historically and presently to the natural environment. It considers the human act in relation to the spiritual decoration of specific trees and people's attachment of meaning to place. Images are both subtle and powerful evoking a sense of the spiritual. The artist is represented by Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin, Ireland.