This article is from page 34 of the 2010-02-09 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 34 JPG
WHEN Bridget Beckley began paint- ing for this year’s ‘Art is for Every- one’ exhibition, little did she know that one of her paintings would be- come a form of art therapy and help her to mourn a terrible loss. Bridget’s life was devastated by
the death of her husband, Peter, in a horrific car accident last July on the Ennis-Kilrush road. Just before the accident, Peter had agreed to be the subject of the portrait Bridget was going to do for the exhibition.
“I knew the portrait course was coming up and doing a portrait is challenging, especially with a live
model and Peter graciously accepted the challenge of being a model and three weeks later, he was dead. I thought initially that I wouldn’t do i
After some time, though, she de- cided that painting his portrait was the best way to remember him.
“With each stage, each layer of paint I put on the page, I was trying to bring him back to life in some way and certainly with the techniques that I used, I had to use my fingers to blend the different shades and the different colours. It made it very per- sonal.”
For 10 weeks she worked off mem- ory, photographs and video footage. The result is indicative of the time, effort and emotion she invested. A fantastic piece of art that gives you a real sense of what the man was like.
“Certainly, doing the portrait has helped me a lot. You could say it was a form of art therapy really.
“The trickiest thing for me was to convey the kind of man he was, to capture his personality in his face, which 1s a difficult thing to do.
‘He was full of life and had a great sense of humour. He had a great presence about him and I was trying to get that across.”
Talking about her experience at the ‘Art is for Everyone’ school she said, “T feel really proud to be part of the art school and it’s great for the students who have never painted in their life, actually exhibiting their work and es- pecially in such a short space of time.”
You can see Peter’s portrait and four other paintings by Bridget at the ‘Art is for Everyone’ exhibition in Kilrush Library from February 18 to March 12. Opening night is Thurs- day, February 18 at 8pm in Kilrush Library. There will be refreshments served and a raffle will be held in support of the Clare Lifeboat Serv- ice. All are invited to attend.