One of Dublin's first art openings of the year took place at the Cross Gallery, on Francis Street. The exhibition of work by Rebecca Peart was viewed by friends and family and opened by Jim Mac Cormaic, art consultant with Irish Life Assurance.
"Her personality comes through. She's a charming girl, bright and bubbly but disciplined and dedicated as well," said Mac Cormaic, who bought Peart's first painting for Irish Life Assurance in 1991.
"The work has both moved on and yet stayed the same. There's a style in the new work which was evident in 1991."
The "hot mardi gras" paintings were influenced by Peart's visit to Morocco and other warm countries, she said. The work is more "about the way you'd feel if you were in different landscapes because I travel as much as I can," she explained.
Her mother, stained-glass artist and print-maker Margaret Becker, who has just opened a print-making studio in Clane, Co Kildare, was at the opening along with her other children, including twins, Daniel and Jessica Peart. Maria Simonds-Gooding, Becker's first cousin, arrived from Dunquin, Co Kerry, to attend the show. Her own exhibition, Trasnú, which is currently on view in Co Donegal, is a collaboration with poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh and is expected to come to Dublin around Easter, she said.
Art critic Ciarán Bennet, who is curating an exhibition to be shown at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in memory of Dorothy Walker, also came to view the new work by Peart.
Other friends included Maria Vlahos, head gardener at Mount Usher, in Co Wicklow, and her husband, Jimmy Shields, architect and musician with The Wounded Kneees, who will be playing in the Mercury Lounge in downtown Manhattan in February, and Carreen and Graham Allen, with their daughter, Jessica Allen (3).