It was the search for perfection that drew comments from guests at the opening of Fergus Feehily's exhibition at the Green on Red Gallery in Dublin. Georgina Jackson, who works at the gallery, picked Inside Outside as her favourite Feehily painting in the show.
"You can almost see the search for perfection [in the circles], the perfect form - and it fails. It's not quite perfect, but it strives for perfection and that's what's really beautiful about it," she said. "There's this constant search for perfection, but there's success in that."
The show, called The Overlap Areas, also impressed Alan Lambert, an artist and one of Feehily's friends. He was also drawn to the Inside Outside picture.
"It's really well-balanced and the number 13 is lucky in Asia," he said, smiling. What makes it so balanced, he added, "is the line across the middle, I think".
Others at the opening of The Overlap Areas included artist Alan Phelan, who is editor of Printed Project, a Sculptors' Society of Ireland journal that will mark the upcoming Venice Biennale in June; Noel Kelly, curator of the Temple Bar Gallery and Studios; photographer Costanzo Idini; and teacher Declan d'Estelle Roe.
"He's a very philosophical painter, and he's been to Japan, which has influenced his work as well in that low-key eastern aesthetic," said d'Estelle Roe of Feehily's work.
Artist Dermot Seymour, whose work is currently showing at the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, was there with his wife and fellow artist, Alice Maher, who had just returned from a residency at the Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh, Co Cork, where she was working with actor Olwen Fouéré and composer Trevor Knight on an ongoing collaborative project.
The Overlap Areas runs at the Green on Red Gallery, 26-28 Lombard Street, Dublin 2, until Saturday, April 16th