‘Rineanna/Shannon Airport, images from the past’: an exhibition by Philip Brennan
Venue: Cultúrlann Sweeney Library Gallery, Kilkee, Co. Clare
Clare Arts Office, in conjunction with Cultúrlann Sweeney Library Gallery, present ‘Rineanna/Shannon Airport, images from the past’, a watercolour exhibition by Philip Brennan.
This is Philip’s 24th solo exhibition since 1982. His paintings are inspired by the landscape, sea, wildlife, music and history of County Clare, much heavily influenced by being an active naturalist. He has mainly exhibited locally, but also around Ireland, in Italy and the USA. He has published two books of his paintings and writing, ‘Clare’ (2002) and ‘Wanderings’ (2006), and illustrated ‘The Birds of Killarney National Park’ (1995).
In the past, he has occasionally featured themes involving aviation at Shannon. He began the present collection in 2019, with the idea of exploring the stories around the foundation of Shannon Airport, called Rineanna in the early days. Rineanna was intended as a seaplane/land-based airport, so the subjects tackled in this show are diverse, from the building of the banks around the airport in the 1930s, agriculture on the airfield, seaplanes, the first plane to land, right up to the Air Corps helicopters today.
He was invited to show the exhibition at Shannon Airport in 2023 and this showing in Kilkee is the start of bringing it to other venues.
This free exhibition runs to 24th May, 2024, and everyone is welcome.
*Philip recently featured on Clare FM’s Atlantic Tales series.