Artists Aksana Sasnouskaya and Aoife Carroll pictured at the launch of their exhibition ‘Creating Connections’ at the Belltable Arts Centre.
The launch of ‘Creating Connections’, an exhibition by two emerging female artists, Aoife Carroll and Aksana Sasnouskaya, took place at the Belltable Arts Centre on O’Connell Street recently. Guests from the arts community in Limerick and family and friends of the talented artists, gathered to help celebrate the exhibition’s opening night.
‘Creating Connections’ features a wide range of watercolour portraits from Aoife and Sasnouskaya, who are both learners in Art, Craft and Design at Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board’s College of FET, Kilmallock Road Campus, under the guidance of art tutor Jayne Foley.
There was great support from the Kilmallock Road Campus, with learners, tutors and managers amongst the guests celebrating with Aoife and Aksana. Members of the wider Further Education and Training multi-campus community also attended, including Director of Further Education and Training, Paul Patton.
Other familiar faces at the exhibition included Limerick singer songwriter Emma Langford, newly crowned Limerick Person of the Year Padraig O’Callaghan and legendary comedian Pat Shortt who officially opened the exhibition.
Director of FET, Paul Patton, art teacher Jayne Foley and comedian Pat Shortt pictured at the launch of ‘Creating Connections’.
Speaking about her work featured in the exhibition, Aoife Carroll said she took inspiration from familiar Limerick faces, showcasing a series of portraits of local people and acknowledging their contribution to life in Limerick. She also spoke about the creative flow in her work “I love how the watercolour paint moves along the wood grain. I have to let the paint do what it wants to. As the painting evolves, I use fine liners in addition to the watercolour to further develop and refine the portraits. I relish the challenge of the unpredictable, which is why I love water media. You are never entirely in control of how it flows or how it dries,” she explained.
Singer songwriter Emma Langford and artist Aoife Carroll pictured with Emma’s portrait which features in the ‘Creating Connections’ exhibition.
Aksana Sasnouskaya, an Eastern European artist, based in Ireland, describes her work as a fusion of Eastern European heritage and Irish culture and symbolism. Speaking about her portraits for ‘Creating Connections’, she described them as almost dreamlike in appearance and explained how they reflect on lives past and present. “In this series of portraits, I have depicted people whose presence or memories have had a great impact on me. The chance meetings with strangers the different paths and journeys our lives can take due to these connections. I like to use watercolour on paper and mixed media. This media helps capture my portraits’ atmosphere and emotion,” she said.
Artist Aksana Sasnouskaya with her daughter Stefaniya who was the subject of one of her paintings.
The beauty of both Aoife and Aksana’s talents can be appreciated at the Belltable Arts Centre, with the ‘Creating Connections’ exhibition running until April 27th. For more information on the Art, Craft and Design programme at College of FET, Killmallock Road Campus check out https://collegeoffet.ie/kilmallock-road
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