The Sea Around Us - WATERFORD GALLERY OF ART

1. John Skelton (1925 – 2009)

The Breakers, n.d,

oil on canvas

John Skelton was born inn Co. Armagh and educated at Queen’s University, Belfast. He also studied at Belfast College of Art and later at St. Martin’s School, London. Skelton’s work has been associated with the figurative revival of the Euston Road School of the 1940s and ’50s, and with the Irish plein-air tradition. He has exhibited throughout Ireland.

(Haverty Trust, 1967)

2.Frank McKelvey RHA RUA (1895 – 1974)

Seascape, c.1930

oil on canvas

A landscape and portrait painter, Frank McKevley was born in Belfast. He worked as a poster designer before attending the Belfast School of Art, where he won the Sir Charles Brett prize for figure drawing in 1912. He quickly gained recognition in Dublin for his landscape paintings. McKelvey exhibited at the RHA from 1918 until 1973, and was made a full member of the Academy in 1930. He also became one of the first academicians of the RUA, and his work is widely distributed amongst collections throughout Ireland.

(Gallery purchase, 1939)

3. Maurice MacGonigal PRHA (1900 – 1979)

Minaun Cliffs, Achill, 1936

oil on board

MacGonigal began his artistic education in his uncle’s stained-glass studio. Following his release in 1921 from Internment due to his activism in Ireland’s Independence, he received a scholarship for the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. One of his teachers was Artist Seán Keating RHA and he later became a teacher and professor at this school, now called the NCAD. He became a member of the RHA and eventually Keating’s successor as their president 1962-1977. He produced paintings, set designs, book illustrations, posters and murals. His typical west of Ireland subject matter was influenced by Seán Keating. His work is represented in all major collections in Ireland.

(Haverty Trust, 1940)

4. Kenneth Mahood (1930-2020)

Marine Moon, 1955

oil on board

Born in Belfast, a largely self-taught artist and freelance cartoonist who worked for Punch and the New Yorker magazines, Mahood began painting in 1950 after spending four years as an apprentice lithographer from 1945 to 1949. He was awarded a CEMA scholarship to study in Paris from 1951 1955 and exhibited at the RUA (1950-65), the IELA (1954-58) and the Victor Waddington Gallery, Dublin (1955). After a period during the 1970’s spent illustrating his own books, he returned to painting and began making boxes and was represented in the Art in Boxes exhibition in London 1991.

(Gallery purchase, IELA, 1972)

5. Desmond Carrick (1928-2012)

On the beach at high noon, Nerja, c. 1995,

oil on panel

Dublin born Carrick studied under Seán Keating and Maurice MacGonigal at the National College of Art, Dublin, working primarily in oils and watercolours producing vibrant Landscapes. In 1968, he was elected a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts, Ireland and as secretary in the

late 1970s he played a crucial role in facilitating what is today’s modern space. Having won the coveted Taylor Scholarship in 1956, this facilitated a trip to Spain, igniting his passion for light and colour. On his retirement in 1977, he spent part of the year in Southern Spain and France. His work painted here was later exhibited in the RHA annual show.

(Donated by Philip Harewood, 2025)

6. Paul Henry RHA,

View of Cliffs, n.d.

oil on canvas

Born in Belfast and studied at the Belfast School of Art. In 1898 Henry went to Paris where he attended the Académie Julian and Académie Carmen. While in Paris he met his future wife Grace Mitchell, a Scottish painter and they were married in 1903. In 1910, they travelled to Achill Island where he was captured by the landscape and rapidly changing light in the West. They eventually settled there between 1912-19. Later, they moved to Dublin and became involved in the art scene, were founder members of the Society of Dublin Painters and in 1926 Henry was elected ARHA, becoming a full member two years later. In later years he became almost totally blind and could no longer paint but wrote short stories and an autobiography. He died in Enniskerry in 1958.

(Praeger gift, 1952)

7. William J. Leech RHA, ROI (1881-1968)

Concarneau, c.1906,

oil on board

Born in Rush, Co. Dublin, Leonard studied at the Metropolitan School of Art (now NCAD) under Seán Keating and Maurice MacGonigal. He gained admission to study at the Royal Academy Schools in London, but that opportunity was lost with the outbreak of war. He has exhibited at the RHA since 1941 and was elected an honorary member in 1983. In 1952 he represented Ireland at the Olympic Games in Helsinki. He worked both as an artist and teacher, his sketching and drawings were later worked into finished oil paintings and became an important part of his painting method. His artwork appears in several important public and private collections, including the National Self Portrait Collection of Ireland at the University of Limerick.

(Best bequest, 1959)

8. Eilis O’Toole

Swimming Series

Watercolours on paper

Eilis O’Toole is a visual artist with a practice in fine art painting, who works with Waterford Healing Arts (WHA). She has exhibited widely throughout Ireland.

Swimming Series 2

Clonea Beach

1st July 2021 8am

Swimming Series 4

Ballinshelleys

14th August 2020 1.30pm

Swimming Series 9

Clonea Beach

2nd July 2022 7.45pm

Swimming Series 7

Clonea Beach

22 June 2022 8am

Swimming Series 8

Curragh Beach

15th June 2022 9.30pm

Swimming Series 8

Whiting Bay

15th September 2020 7.20pm

(Private Collection)

For Sale: €375 each

9. Síle Walsh

Sea Summoned a Storm

2024,

oil, acrylic bar on marine ply

For Sale: €1200

The Drowning at Connlas Well

2025, oil, graphite on marine ply

For Sale: €950

Síle Walsh paints figurative portraits and landscapes inspired by the sea, swimmers and the community around her. She previously worked as a veterinary nurse and lifeguard trainer. Walsh has exhibited extensively, including the RHA, Royal Society of Women Artists in UK, Royal Ulster Academy and the Flash Gallery in Barcelona. She was a heat contestant with Sky Portrait Artist of the Year in 2019 and Sky Landscape Artist of the Year in 2022.

(Private Collection)

10. Patrick Leonard HRHA (1918-2005)

Coming In, n.d.

oil on board

(Purchased at the Waterford Annual Exhibition, 1948)

11. Jane Jermyn

Urchin Pods, 2025

glazed ceramic

Jermyn is an artist living, working and teaching in Co Waterford. In 2001 she was awarded her BA from West Wales School of the Arts and her MA in 2009 from National College of Art and Design in Dublin. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and she has received a number of awards from The Arts Council, Crafts Council, Culture Ireland, ArtLinks and Waterford & Kilkenny Co Councils.

Installation For Sale: €1200

12. Jack Thompson,

The Sand Dunes and Backstrand from Brownstown Head, Tramore

2022 limited edition hahnemüehle photo rag fine art print

Derek Hill’s Hut, Tory Island

2022 limited edition hahnemüehle photo rag fine art print

Thompson is a UK-born award winning photographer now living and working in Waterford. He has served as artist in residence at Clonter (Opera Theatre) , has exhibited nationally and internationally in both solo and group shows

(Presented to the Waterford Art Collection from the estate of Jack Thompson Art)

13. Maura Culbert

Rise Up III

2025,

oil on canvas

Rise Up I

2025,

oil on canvas

Culbert is a Waterford-born artist living and working in Dublin. Her initial introduction to art was through interior design, which she has had a huge passion for from a very young age. While studying interior design she then discovered art (painting in particular). While pursuing her love of creating art Culbert has developed her business as an interior designer.

For Sale: €2700

14. Mick O’Dea PPRHA

O’Brien’s Castle, 2003,

oil on canvas

Mick O’Dea is a painter and sculptor living and working in Ireland. He is a past President of the Royal Hibernian Academy, a member of Aosdána.

(Waterford Art Collection purchase 2003)

15 & 16. M Donal Moloney

Helvick, Co Waterford at Dusk 1953,

watercolour on paper

Break, Break c.1950,

watercolour on paper

Moloney was an Irish artist primarily active during the 1950s.

(City County Collection, purchased from the Waterford Annual Art Exhibition, 1959)

17. Una Connolly, Glandore

Co. Cork, c.1950,

watercolour on paper

A artist and teacher who exhibited at the WAE during the 1950s and 1960s, Una Connolly was also a member of the Art Advisory Committee.

(City County Collection, purchased from the Waterford Annual Art Exhibition, 1973)

18. Berthold Dunne

Fishing Boats at Rest, 1950,

watercolour on paper

Dunne studied at the National College of Art under Séan Keating and Maurice MacGonigal, and later attended Yann Renard Goulet’s school in Bray. He was a watercolour painter mainly of landscapes and seascapes. He was elected a member of the Watercolour Society of Ireland in 1951. He regularly took part in the RHA and Oirechtas exhibitions, and exhibited in the 1975 Waterford Art Exhibition.

(Originally City Council Collection)

19. R.J. (Dick) Sandford

The Quay, Dungarvan, c.1950

watercolour paper

Dick Sandford was a self-taught artist who lived in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, and worked in both oils and watercolour.

(City County Collection, purchased at the Waterford Annual Art Exhibition, 1950)

20. George Pennefather

Quay near Cashel, Connemara, n.d,

watercolour on paper

Born near Kilworth, County Cork. Pennefather was self-taught. A regular exhibitor at the RHA throughout the 1940’s he took part in the first Irish Exhibition of Living Art in 1943. Later settling with his wife in Kilkenny, they became active advocates for a Kilkenny Art Gallery and were prominent members of the Kilkenny Art Gallery Society. Their efforts were finally rewarded with the foundation of the Butler Art Gallery in Kilkenny in 1973. They returned to Kilworth in later years, and his work can be seen in collections in Clonmel, Cork, and Waterford as well as Kilkenny.

(Donated by Mrs EM O’Rourke Dickey, 1957 to the Waterford Art Collection).

21. William Bingham McGuiness RHA (1849 – 1928)

Venice, 1886,

watercolour on paper

Born in Dublin, McGuiness was a well-travelled and prolific landscape painter. He exhibited at the RHA from 1886-1928, and later went to live in London.

(Best bequest, 1959)

22. Aileen M Langley-Ellis

The Lobster Pool, Co Kerry, c.1950,

watercolour on paper

Aileen Langley-Ellis was a painter of landscape and figurative subjects, and remembered locally for her drawings of children. She was resident in Piltown, Co. Kilkenny during the 1930s, and later moved to Woodstown, Co. Waterford. She took part at the WAE from the early 1940s until the late 1960s.

(City County Collection, purchased at the Waterford Annual Art Exhibition, 1950)

23. Lilla Perry (1888 – 1974)

The Island of Keane, 1955,

watercolour on paper

Lilla Perry was born in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, the youngest daughter of the historian Richard Bagwell. Nothing is known of her art training, and it is likely that she was self- taught. She painted almost entirely in watercolour, specialising in nature scenes. She exhibited frequently in WCSI exhibitions between 1908 and 1970, and at the London Salon and the RHA.

(Originally City County Collection)

24. Dorothy Caldwell (1927 – 2022)

Dunmore East, c.1950,

watercolour on paper

A Waterford-born artist, Dorothy Caldwell was a founding member of the Waterford City Arts Group, and she exhibited regularly at the WAE from the 1940s onwards.

(City County Collection, purchased at the Waterford Annual Art Exhibition, 1950)

25. Colonel Charles Anderson BC, OBE, PRCS

Dunmore East, n.d.

oil on canvas

Charles Anderson exhibited regularly at the Waterford Art Exhibition (WAE) from the 1950’s onwards.

(City County Collection, purchased at the Waterford Annual Art Exhibition, 1972)

26. Clare Scott

Silk, 2011,

oil on canvas

Scott was a painter for some years before returning to college to expand their practice. They received a First Class Honours degree in Visual Arts from S.E.T.U. (2017) and an MA in Art & Process from C.I.T. Crawford in Cork (2019) as well as a Postgraduate Diploma in Museum Practice and Management with Ulster University (2024). In 2022 Scott was awarded the Platform 31 Award for Waterford and received the Arts Council Agility Award in 2021 and 2024. Scott has exhibited work both nationally and internationally solo and group exhibitions.

(Private Collection)

27. Christopher Keating (fl.1935-1960)

The Boat Cove, c.1950,

oil on board

Christopher Keating lived for a time in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford. He exhibited at the RHA (1935-56), with the Dublin Sketching Club (1959-60), and at the WAE from the 1940s onwards.

(Purchased at the Waterford Annual Art Exhibition, 1956)

28. Micheál De Búrca RHA (1913-1985)

Seascape, n.d.,

oil on board

Born in Castlebar, Co. Mayo, Miceál De Burca was a landscape, figure and portrait painter. He studied at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin, and subsequently became it’s director (1943-70). He was also appointed an art inspector with the Department of Education in 1940. De Burca was a regular exhibitor at the RHA between 1933 and 1976, and was elected its secretary in 1948. Many of his landscapes and seascapes were painted in the west of Ireland.

(Haverty Trust, 1955)

29. Phoebe Donovan (1902 – 1998)

The Guillemot, c.1950,

lithograph

Phoebe Donovan was one of Victor Waddington’s group of artists, showing there regularly in both group and solo shows. She exhibited widely in Dublin with the RHA, the WCSI, IELA, the Oireachtas exhibitions, and annually from 1960-1968 with the Dublin Painters group. She is represented in the National Self-Portrait Collection in Limerick, and a gallery attached to her family home ‘Ballymore’ in Camolin, Co. Wexford, has a permanent display of her work.

(Waterford Art Collection Purchase, 2024)

30. Tanja Novacic, 1276 Miles of Connection (2025)

Fabric, metal, glass, acrylic paint, oil paint, foil leaves

The geographical distance between Croatia and Ireland is 1,276 nautical miles — a direct sea route between Dublin Port and Rijeka. It is a route of trade, fishing, imports, and exports. Yet for a migrant, it is also a passage between the familiar south and the green north — a line that reshapes life and identity. On the map, the sea between the two countries forms its own shape. With the land removed, only the negative space remains — a symbol of absence and transformation. Distance becomes form. The unknown becomes known. The old retreats into memory as the new takes shape. This distance is physical and daunting, yet also beautiful: shifting oceans, colours, and horizons; rhythms of loss and renewal. Like the tides that wash away and return, relationships fade and re-emerge, carrying fragments of life — people, places, destinies — across the water.

Through materials, this work seeks to give form to the intangible. To make visible the distance and the connection. To show how, as old ties dissolve, new ones are woven into being.

(SETU Visual Art Graduate Award winner commission)

31. Jane Jermyn

Urchin Pods, 2025,

glazed ceramic

For Sale:

Large Urchin Pod – €500

Medium Urchin Pod – €250

Small Urchin Pod – €125

32. Clare Scott

Various Drawings, 2025,

(L-R from top)

Basking Shark
Sprat
Angelfish
Anglerfish
Jelly
Cockle

pencil on paper

(Private Collection)

33. Linn Hansen

Sea Point,

hahnemüehle photo rag fine art print

Winner of ‘The Sea Around Us’ open-call photo competition

Linn Hansen is a German visual artist and writer based in Dublin. With a background in filmmaking, her personal projects also incorporate photography, illustration and creative writing. She is currently working on a collection of short stories and finishing her first novel.

(Waterford Art Collection)

34. Open Call

This summer the Waterford Gallery of Art launched an open-call competition inviting artists to send in their photographs of the sea, coast, beaches and quaysides – images inspired by joy, awe, ecology, heritage, and the importance of the sea to our everyday lives. We received over five-hundred images from almost two-hundred artists from the island of Ireland. This presentation displays works from the thirty-six artists shortlisted by our specialist selection panel.

Gerry Blake | Sean Breithaupt | Deirdre Brennan | Missy Brinkmeyer

Natalia Campos | Jane Cummins | Jamie Davis | Kevin Doyle

Connor Flanagan | Kevin Gaynor | Linn Hansen | Ellen Harold

Ian Hassett | Madeleine Hellier | Martina Hooley | Sacha Hutchinson

Jimi Xi Johnson | Glenn Keelan | Aaron Kelly | Donal Kelly

Doreen Kennedy | Billy Kenrick | David Killeen | Graham Martin

Anne Martin Walsh | Maria McSweeney | Barry Mullins | Tadgh O’ Connell

Eoghan O’Brien | Kevin O’Farrell | Tom Ormond | Harry Phipps

Maria Quigley | Myles Shelly | Beatrice Stapleton | Stephen Turner

35. Maura Culbert

Rise Up II, 2025,

oil on canvas

For Sale: €2700

36. Killian Browne Quartet

Dance In Blue, 2025

Premiere performance of a new Waterford Arts Office commissioned sound piece by Killian Browne (piano) quartet. Accompanied by Kaya Keating (violin), Darren Dreelan (clarinet), Darragh Browne (bodhran and whistles).

John Mullins: Recording and engineering

Recorded with support from Waterford Music in the Large Room

Sea sound field recordings from Tramore Beach.