Joan Clancy Art Gallery
   Mweelahorna, Ring, Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, Ireland. Tel : (058) 46205   Mobile : (086) 813 4597  
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Rayleen & Blawnin Clancy - Painters From A Remarkable Family

Press Release 21st November 2005

Natural History – Áilleacht Chroí a stunning collection of paintings inspired by the natural beauty of the Ring peninsula in County Waterford, is currently running in Greyfriars Municipal Art Gallery in Waterford City until Wednesday December 22nd.

This new body of work by Rayleen Clancy and her sister Blawnin Clancy has been in preparation since January. Several of the paintings bear theme and colour evocative of the wonderful summer of 2005, and are being snapped up by canny collectors.

Rayleen's canvases delicately wrought with almost microscopic detail are largely inspired by horseback rides through forests in the Drum Hills in townlands with mystical names like Rí na Phiobaire (King of the Pipers). Her work is a celebration of the wealth and abundance of wildflowers and perennial weeds in those forests which are seasonally inhabited with hordes of flying insects sporting exotic hues.

Blawnin Clancy's exquisite isolated detail from parts of Helvick Cove, Faill a'Staicín, Baile na nGall and other locations are finely painted, and engage the viewer with the tranquillity and timelessness of her work. Her use of muted and earth-bound tones suggests a patina of history and age.

The Clancy sisters have steadily been gaining excellent reputations as artists; their work forms part of civic, corporate and private collections in Ireland, Europe and the US. Both have had successful solo exhibitions in South Tipperary Arts Centre, and were featured on Nationwide on RTE 1. Earlier this year their paintings provoked much acclaim in Waterford Healing Arts Trust at Waterford Regional Hospital. They regularly exhibit in Joan Clancy Gallery in the Ring Gaeltacht, and indeed half of the paintings already bear red stickers.

Rayleen studied at the National College of Art & Design and at San Francisco Art Institute and graduated from Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Film Studies. Her work was included in the 173rd RHA Annual Exhibition.

Blawnin Clancy studied at Crawford College of Art & Design and graduated from NCAD. Her painting The Swimmer was chosen from Ireland and UK to appear in the 2005 Daler-Rowney Calender.

Rayleen and Blawnin are daughters of Joan Clancy and the late Tom Clancy a founding member of The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem. They lived in New York and Los Angeles where their father pursued his Broadway and Hollywood career before relocating to Ireland in 1985.

   Contemporary Irish Art Gallery Near Dungarvan - Young, Emerging & Established Artists Website By : Déise Design