Two artists working on the Beara Peninsula, Sarah Walker and Marc van Zanten, have created an installation that tries to wrap up the essence of summer. Guests who arrived at the opening of Another Day in Paradise in the old handball alley in Castletownbere were invited to climb up to an old balcony high above the handball court. From on high there was a perfect view of the tiny details of the Irish landscape, vacuum packed and floating in the breeze - buttercups, sticks, foxgloves, the lot.
"We only really got the idea a few weeks ago," explains Sarah, "I usually paint while Marc does installations, but then we got this idea and ended up collaborating completely on it." The evening was a rare sunny one and the effect of the vacuum-packed pieces of summer was magical. "All my family deserted me," joked Sarah - her mother, Dorothy Walker, was in Paris with Sarah's sister Ciannait, who is getting married later in the year, while Sarah's own husband, Kieran, was out at sea, tuna fishing. Brother Simon Walker, architect, was there as well as a clatter of friends from the local arts community including Tim Goulding, Danny Osborne, the man behind the Oscar Wilde statue in Merrion Square, and ceramicist Cormac Boydell. Ger Scully, in charge of wardrobe on many recent films, was there with her husband, Paul.
Billy Forrester of champagne importers The Bubble Brothers arrived bearing the most apt gift of all - a bottle of champagne in a vacuum pack which was quickly downed along with plenty of Sea Breeze cocktails. Afterwards, the crew moved on to watch the flamenco group, Zamba, who performed in Castletownbere as part of the Beara Arts Week.