Brendan received a BA Fine Art in GMIT Galway, Post Graduate Diploma in Crawford school of Art.
His painting ‘Organic Motor’ featured in a Sunday Independent article on GMIT Fine Art programme.
Exhibitions
Galway Arts Centre.
Linenhall Arts Centre , Castlebar.
Exhibitions USA 2010-2015
Ashawagh Hall Gallery, East Hampton, NY.
Rivers Edge Art Gallery, Wyandotte/Detroit Michigan
Charles Adams Art Gallery, Lubbock Texas
Whitethorn Gallery, Clifden, Galway 2020
Awards
Claremorris Open Exhibition
Received second prize for print/etching.
Works in private collections in Ireland and USA .
Brendan Walsh – Artists Statement
All things mechanical and organic. Those would be my primary sources of inspiration. My early painting ‘Organic Motor’ that i mentioned in my bio was an interpretation of the interrelationship between the two worlds that at times seem to have little in common. The world of the organism and the world of the machine. I have to say that even in early years I was always struck by the aesthetics of the natural organic world and the more functional world of architecture engineering etc. In my mind the overlap was very obvious aesthetically. And so my painting reflects some of that sense of interrelationship even if in a somewhat whimsical way at times. Through colour, structural elements, composition and spatial dimensions. Surfaces, positive and negative spaces, directional movements, rhythms and motion find their way into each work as part of the common visual language. This often gives birth to objects and shapes defined by brushstrokes, colours or drawing. Capturing the experience is as integral as the image itself. So I find myself juggling both aspects ; subjective experience and representation or depiction. I try not to belabour the representation and at the same time avoid subjective dissoIution of the image into total abstraction. Holding the two in tension is the goal leaving room for discovery and surprise. So my imagery is not over descriptive. I find that through that process something exciting emerges that more often than not surprises me. Building up and pulling down, overpainting and reinventing.The struggle throughout the whole process involves a myriad of ajustments to maintain a sense of visual harmony while keeping the original spontaneity alive. No easy task. So my paintings are very layered; the fruit of multiple changes of direction, alteration and dare I say hair pulling. The end ‘product’ for the want of a better word never fails to surprise me. If it ‘works’ I walk away from it in case i ruin it by overdoing some element. As far as sources of inspiration in the artworld are concerned (outside of nature and industry) I am struck not just by painters like Gustav Klimt, Antoni Clave, De Stael etc, but also by sculptors like Alexander Calder, Barbara Hepworth and Jean Tinguely to mention but a few. I am not a follower of fashion though. I dont subscribe to any school or movement. Those who bought my work never once asked ‘what is it’? or what ‘ist’ attaches to your name. And so it should be.
