James Hanley pinpoints the hallmarks of a ‘painter’s painter as seen on Joe Dunne’s meditative suite of paintings on view at the RHA
A couple of years ago I happened upon an artist friend alone in the main gallery of the RHA, staring at Joe . .Dunne’s six works in that year’s annual exhibition. Also a tonal painter, I knew instinctively from his concentration that he had nothing but admiration for the work, the large still-life in particular being a standout work of that year. I thought about this moment and who and what we paint for, in anticipation of talking to Joe Dunne surrounded by his near-complete still-lifes for his upcoming show. The moniker ‘a painter’s painter’ though overused seemed apt here, because Joe Dunne’s work strives to be about the essence of paint and its transformative nature, rooted in close observation of reality as its starting point but through contemplation, selection, manipulation and refinement becoming something that exists entirely within its own rationale.
Susan Rogers visits woodturner Liam Flynn at his County Limerick studio
William Laffan previews the exhibition ‘Ireland: Crossroads of Art and Design 1690-1840′ which opens at the Art Institute of Chicago in March
In his design for the new Coast Guard Station in Doolin, County Clare, Dominic Stevens has discovered his architecture of the Burren; an architecture of abstract rocks, describing the material nature of place, writes Steve Larkin