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3 Jun
Artist Bridget Flinn discovered inspiration in lockdown in simple, everyday scenes around Northern Ireland and recreated them as personal masterpieces that carry meaning for an entire nation.
An experiment in lockdown when she was trapped in Dublin helped move her imagination northwards and as borders opened she dashed to Northern Ireland and spent six month recreating moments in time on canvas.
And now she is revealing her work from that time at a new exhibition in one of the country's leading galleries, Gormley's Fine Art's Belfast. ‘Looking North’ opens on Saturday, June 4 and runs until June 25.
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Bridget spent six months exploring Northern Ireland’s landscape in preparation for the new exhibition, which explores many aspects of life from Belfast’s urban landscape to the stunning coastline around Strangford Lough in Co Down.
‘Looking North’ consists of nine new works, each inspired by her exploration of the urban and rural landscape she encountered.
The exhibition follows on from a very successful earlier one in Dublin which focused on the urban Sandymount area of the city.
She said: “The Dublin one came out of lockdown, when I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere – and when you're stuck where you are, you don't have any choice other than to paint where you are.
“So that's what I did, and I just didn't know how people would react to those paintings of the urban landscape that I liked so much.
“I wasn't sure that they would have general appeal, but thankfully it was a really successful exhibition, so I was delighted with that.”
Bridget says that the success of that exhibition and her love of urban landscapes inspired her to pursue this area of painting, and prompted ‘Looking North’.
She explained: “When I came to Belfast it was an absolutely freezing cold day, but gorgeous and sunny at the same time, so I couldn’t complain.
“I went out to the Titanic area and looked around. I liked the docks and all that kind of scenery, so I just did some sketches and took some photographs, and then I walked along the river and town where I did some more shots and sketches.
“Some of the paintings are from that day – and I also have been up to Strangford Lough a few times, and it's just beautiful along there.
“I just love the scenery along there. I guess about half the paintings are from there, and half the paintings are from Belfast’s kind of urban landscape.”
“I do particularly like the urban landscape – I like painting things with strong structure, such as cranes, building sites and buildings – anything to do with the urban landscape.
“I do other things as well such as flower painting which Gormley's have shown in the past, in addition to regular landscapes.”
Bridget studied Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin and later at the prestigious Royal College of Art in London.
She has exhibited widely in Ireland, including at the the Royal Ulster Academy and the Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition.
‘Looking North’ runs at Gormleys Fine Art, Lisburn Road, Belfast from June 4 - 25. See gormleys.ie for more details.
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