Fusion

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A start of a wonderful friendship

“Fusion” was one of those special celebrations of friendship and art combined. My dear wonderful artist friend Annmarie O’Donovan and my-self joined together holding our exhibition in the wonderful Skylight Gallery, Bandon, Co. Cork.

I met AnnMarie while doing a FETAC course in painting and drawing in the beautiful Kinsale, Co. Cork a few years previous. I just love telling the story to our meeting. She a busy lady, living on a big dairy farm in Dunmore, Clonakilty, Co. Cork and I a busy lady living on a large poultry farm near Kinsale. We had so much in common. Hard work for a start, working 7 days a week, 365! We both have a love for nature, animals and all things outside.

We became friends straight away and shared also the fact that we were both mums to two boys! So many a story was exchanged with so much in common as is the case with boys! One day as I was telling AnnMarie that I had a little of golden retriever puppies and all the excitement that surrounded that, she mentioned that a man in Bandon was going to let her know when he had goldens again!! So my ears pricked up and I asked his name!!!! well what a laugh we had when it was discovered he was my husband! And so, our friendship was bonded in so many ways, including the joy of having AnnMarie take one of my puppies and Taylor began a wonderful life in the vast countryside and farm which he grew up.

We both enjoyed trips to galleries, exchanged tips, painted together, gave each other encouragement and advice over the years. Then an opportunity arose to exhibit in the Skylight Gallery, Bandon, Co. Cork. Bandon being my town, and the Skylight gallery being run by the energetic Maria McLaughlin gave us a fantastic space to hold our joint exhibition.

Plans were put in place, and we both encouraged each other with the pieces we painted, both complimenting each other’s work. The galley was filled with wonderful paintings, two glamorous artists were ready, a table filled to the brim with finger food and wine, a vase of beautiful flowers and people started arriving. They kept arriving and soon the gallery was filled to the brim of family, friends, passers-by enjoying a glass of wine and nibbles to the sound of trad music. Our friend came and gave us a great night’s entertainment of music which gave a lovely atmosphere to the night. Seeing people mingle and chat gave both of us a great buzz.

We held a raffle on the night for a charity that was close to both AnneMarie’s and my heart. Our love of dogs was what gave us the idea to hold the raffle for “My Canine Companion Autism Service”, a charity that train service dogs for children living with Autism. I had the joy of breeding two retrievers who went into training and become service dogs to a wonderful family. So it gave us great joy to be able to raise some much needed funds on the night and present them to such a worthy charity.

The night saw many of our paintings finding new homes, which is always something that I feel very blessed with. When someone likes your work enough to place it in their homes makes the joy of painting complete for me. The Skylight gallery has a few different rooms so it made for a great space for browsing and we were able to theme pieces together to work a better flow.

There was great support by our families both by carrying the paintings both up and down the two flights of stairs!! Not an easy task and one we just could not have achieved on our own. We are so grateful to all the help. Maria was a wonderful gallery owner to work with, pulling out all the stops and promoting the event in the local magazine, on flyers around the town and also via email. The proof of this was the amount of people that turned up on the night.

A huge thank you to all who made this night possible and such a huge success.