On the Town: The haunting sound of piano and soprano filled the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre in Dublin this week at the opening of an exhibition of flower paintings by Mary Dillon.
Soprano Toni Walsh, accompanied by Ukrainian pianist Lina Butorinova, sang about The Last Rose of Summer, which was "left blooming alone", after the official opening by RTÉ's Bryan Dobson. Walsh will be giving two concerts of "mothering songs" on Sunday, March 21st - in the Helix at lunchtime and in Dún Laoghaire's Pavilion at 8 p.m. Dillon says she achieves deep colours in her paintings by doing layers of intense washes. "I tend to largely look into the centre of the flower," she explained, standing beside a large-scale painting of the red heart of one bloom. "I love watercolours because you have to abandon yourself to the paint and the water. It's unpredictable and it's so expressive."
Dillon's next venture will be an exhibition of paintings of underwater life, which she did from drawings at the aquarium in Dingle. These works of jelly fish, shrimp and sea anemones will go on show at the Dungarvan Arts Centre, Co Waterford, from Wednesday, April 14th.
Others at the show included Dillon's husband, Tom Lupton, a teacher at Coolderry National School, Co Offaly, and their two children, Kate (12) and Hannah (8). A friend, soprano Linda Kenny, who has just started rehearsals for Side by Side by Sondheim, which opens in the Everyman Palace Theatre, Cork, on Wednesday, February 11th, also came along to congratulate the artist. One of Dillon's neighbours from Roscrea, Co Tipperary, Gerry Cahir, a retired bank manager, who took up sculpting stones and bog oak three years ago, was also among those who came along to enjoy the show.
Dillon's exhibition, Celebrating Plant Life, runs at the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre until Friday, February 6th.