60 Years of Graphic Studio Dublin, Draiocht

60 Years of Graphic Studio Dublin

Ireland’s oldest printmaking studio, est 1960.

An exhibition of work by GSD members born, educated or living in Fingal

and artists connected with the annual Fingal / GSD residency.

Susan Early

Susan Early is an Architect & Printmaker. She became a member of Graphic Studio Dublin in 2012 where she now works as Studio Administrator. She makes etchings in drypoint and aquatint and has exhibited nationally and in Europe, Canada and the USA. Her work features in private and public collections including Fingal County Council, University of Limerick, Office of Public Works and National Botanic Gardens.

Susan’s printmaking is informed by drawings and photographs of familiar elements in Irish landscapes. Structures, buildings and the landscape topography, studied against context, are explored. The built and natural environment defined by the sea is of particular interest and includes studies of ships, lighthouses and other built landmarks.

Niamh Flanagan;

Niamh Flanagan graduated from Fine Art Print at the National College of Art and Design. She became a member of Graphic Studio Dublin in 2004, where she now also works as Projects Manager and Master Printer. She has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally and her work is in the collections of the Office of Public Works, The Law Society of Ireland, the Chester Beatty Library, the British Library and the National Gallery of Ireland.

Niamh Flanagan’s work explores the search for utopias within our world, and the restless desire to be somewhere else. She uses visual elements of the landscapes around her; both urban and rural, internal and external, to describe this search for something that is perhaps unattainable. The prints depict a world of abstracted landscapes and cityscapes telling fragments of stories, showing the unseen, the hidden and the unreal as they lurk beneath turbulent skies. The world spins, the seasons change, they change back again; and we dream and spin and dream again.

Mary Grey,

Mary Grey took up printmaking when she retired from teaching in 2005. She attended classes in Graphic Studio Dublin and was accepted as a member in 2009. Since then she has made prints using various methods of printmaking – etching, linocut, woodblock, photointaglio, screenprint, carborundum, lithography and letterpress – liking the variety, and continues to learn through weekend classes in the Studio. She exhibits in the Summer and Winter exhibitions in the Gallery, and in exhibitions, organised by the Studio and Gallery, in venues throughout the country.

Her inspiration comes from Nature and her surroundings.

Julie Ann Haines,

Julie Ann was born in Belfast and studied Fine Art Painting at Manchester and Norwich Schools of Art. She discovered Fine Art Print after moving to Dublin and colour etchings and monotypes now comprise her main body of work. Her images depict intimate studies of the urban landscape around North Dublin where she lives and concentrate on isolated structures that convey a quiet contemplative stillness. Her carefully balanced compositions are usually small in scale and a recent departure into larger work – as seen in the pieces in this show has allowed her to develop a more painterly approach with the mark making in her etching process. Julie Ann’s work is in many private collections as well as the National Gallery of Ireland, National Library of Ireland, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, British Library, University of Limerick, Fingal and Meath County Councils.

Michele Hetherington;

Michele Hetherington is a multi-disciplinary artist working living and working in Dublin.

Her practice emerges from a conceptual and poetical curiosity surrounding ideas of Time, Place and

the Self. Michele holds a Masters Degree in Fine Art and an undergraduate degree in Printmaking

from NCAD, Dublin. In 2018, she was awarded the Fingal Arts Council Graduate Award and

subsequently held her first solo show, ‘Talk Softly’. Exhibiting nationally and internationally, her

work is a part of both private and public collections. Michele became a member of Graphic Studio in 2019.

Ernada Husic;

Ernada Husic graduated from Fine Art Print at the National College of Art and Design, and became a member of Graphic Studio Dublin in 2017. She works mainly in multi-layered screenprint.

Siobhan Hyde;

Siobhan Hyde is an excellent and proficient printmaker and has worked in the field of print making for over twenty five years, joining Graphic Studio Dublin in 1990. Her most recent body of work started with the idea of creating a series of prints in memory of her Mother as a dressmaker, subsequently a visit to see Jim Dines \’Tools\’ in New York influenced a broader appreciation of objects as beautiful and worthy of representation. This suite of screen prints mainly still lives, incorporate homemaking, soul searching and remembering the delight of the simple pleasures in life.

Desmond Kenny;

Desmond Kenny is an interdisciplinary artist who works in paint, sculpture and print. He joined Graphic Studio Dublin in 2005, where his focus is on screen-printing, creating multi-layered, unique one-off works that combine watercolour, acrylic and mixed media. Since he began making art in 1986 he has exhibited widely in Ireland and abroad, solo shows include Draíocht in 2001, The Lab in 2006 and Pallas Contemporary Projects in 2008, Draoicht Arts Centre, Dublin 2011, Solstice Arts Centre, Navan. Recent group shows include Ink Miami Art Fair, 2018, Model Sligo, 2019. His work is included in many collections including the Office of Public Works, SIPTU, and Fingal County Council.

Michael Killen;

Michael Killen is a sculptor who studied in Dun Laoghaire School of Art and Design and the Academy of Fine Arts (Academia di Belle Arti di Firenze) in Florence. He then worked in a stone sculptor\’s studio in Pietrasanta, North of Pisa and on his return to Ireland he established his studio in Malahide, County Dublin.

In 2016 Fingal County Council awarded him a residency to work under the direction of Robert Russell, master artist and printer, in Graphic Studio Dublin. On completion of the residency he undertook a series of print making courses in Graphic Studio and in 2017 he was accepted for membership of the Studio. In 2019 Fingal County Council awarded him a bursary to advance my print making skills in the studio under Robert\’s direction.

Jennifer Lane;

Jennifer Lane was born in Dublin and studied at Dun Laoghaire School of Art and Design. She joined Graphic Studio Dublin in 1975. Her woodcuts figure in many private, State and corporate collections. In 2019, she was commissioned by Trinity College, Dublin to produce a multicolour woodblock print. In February 2020 her images featured in an exhibition of Irish art in the Irish Embassy in Ankara, Turkey.

Pamela Leonard;

Pamela Leonard spent 6 years studying in The National College of Art. She won an NCAD scholarship in painting and taught art for 20 years. She has also designed stamps and books and won awards for these. She has worked at etching for the last 33 years and joined Graphic Studio Dublin in 1986. Pamela has exhibited in the RHA for 43 years along with other major exhibitions. Her etchings are in collections in Amsterdam, P&O liners and other public buildings.

Ned McLoughlin;

Ned McLoughlin studied painting in the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, and has exhibited in Ireland and abroad. He has worked in film and tv as a production designer and art director and in theatre as a set designer and scene painter.

Recently he has been exploring narrative in large paintings under the provisional title ‘Bog People and Other Works’. He joined the Graphic Studio in Autumn 2017.

Robert Russell;

Robert Russell attended IADT Dun Laoghaire from 1979. He specialised in sculpture but also worked in painting and print. Robert has focused on printmaking since joining Graphic Studio Dublin in 1988 and is Studio Director and Master Printer there since 2007.

His work is in the collections of The National Gallery of Ireland, The Chester Beatty Library and The British Library. He was awarded a prize for painting in the Taylor Art Competition in 1980, and received the Alfred Beit Award and the Norah McGuinness Award in 1993.

Una Sealy;

Painter Una Sealy was the recipient of the Fingal Arts funded residency at Graphic Studio 2017/18, where she made this piece. She is a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy, where she is also a tutor in painting and drawing at RHA School. She has exhibited widely in Ireland and abroad, and is the winner of numerous awards.

She is currently undertaking a Masters of Science in Anatomy for Artists at RCSI.

Sorca O’Farrell Sorca O’Farrell is a landscape artist from Howth, Co .Dublin. She is a graduate of NCAD, Fine Art Print-Making. Her work has been exhibited in The National Gallery of Ireland, The RHA, RUA, and various group and solo shows.

Her work is included in many public and private collections, and she was delighted to receive the Graphic Studio/Fingal County Council Residency Award 2019.