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Turning stories into works of art

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 Phillip Brennan at his home in Stonehall, Newmarket-on-Fergus.  Photograph by Declan MonaghanARTIST, ornithologist, singer, published author and teacher. Newmarket-on-Fergus man Philip Brennan, is many things to many people but what is undeniable throughout all his endeavours is his unique ability to tell a story.
His paintings capture the imagination, the viewer immediately diving into Philip’s world. Be it a scene from his wild and wonderful garden, a farmer working the land under the scrutiny of mischievous magpies or portraying musicians playing to their hearts’ content, his storytelling ability shines through.
Philip took up painting in his teens, having been fascinated with drawing but it was another passion of his, which developed in the 1970s, that sparked inspiration and that was bird watching.
Having returned to his native Clare to take up a national school teaching post in Shannon, Philip got involved with the Irish World Bird Conservatory group, now Bird Watch Ireland. This was what triggered his interest in wildlife painting.
In the late 1970s, Philip got his first big break when the late Tom Fitzgibbon organised a small exhibition in Shannon as part of a summer festival. Philip said he owes much to Tom for this, as it was his first chance to exhibit with professionals and soon realised people liked his paintings, which were snapped up.
Buoyed by this boost of confidence, Philip went on to exhibit in Brogan’s in Ennis in 1983, when he had realised that watercolour was his forte.
“I started off, I believe, as a very bad oil painter. I hadn’t the temperament for oil painting, waiting for it to dry and such, so I started working with watercolour in the late-1970s and my first exhibition in 1983 was mostly watercolour. I’d take the odd flurry into pastels, oil or acrylic but I found that watercolour suits me best. I think watercolour doesn’t need to be wishy-washy; it can be very powerful if you want it to be. It’s not everyone’s technique, a lot of people find it difficult but I find oil difficult. It suits my temperament; talk fast walk fast,” Philip quipped.
Inspiration isn’t too far away for Philip, with Clare’s rich landscape providing fodder but he does sometimes have to look elsewhere for ideas.
“It’s hard to know what inspires me really. It’s a combination of things. A lot of the landscape stuff, for instance the coastlines would inspire me. One of my favourite coastlines is a stretch down by the Bridges of Ross. The fact that the cliffs are low and you get big seas is great. Certainly, that cliffscape from the Bridges of Ross to Kilkee is a great favourite of mine. Places like the Burren for a Clare painter are so fascinating and challenging. Quilty is another favourite,” he said.
However, in his paintings it can be something that catches him in the simplest of places, like a scene out from his garden, such as the last of the swallows paying a visit to his anemones in early October. He explained using this anomaly he was able to contrive a favourite painting of his.
“Often my paintings are based on an idea, sometimes from my connection with music. One of my paintings was during Willie Clancy week at the Crosses of Annagh and again is based on a story. A group were playing away inside and I went across the car park and this little sedge warmer bird was singing like mad. When I went back inside I was telling them you’re driving this bird crazy. We went outside afterwards and someone said to me ‘you sing the first song’ and I replied ‘but my bird has stopped singing’. The minute I opened my mouth and started to sing the first note he started up again. So that gave me a story and a painting came out of that,” he said.
Sometimes Philip says inspiration comes from his journal, where he is able to capture a story from his diary in a painting.
“I’m fond of stories. For instance, I have a painting of two magpies that is based on an English folk song called The Magpie. There’s a line in it ‘He sees us at our labour and mocks us at our work’ and in the painting you get the impression that the magpies are sitting up in the tree looking down at the poor old farmer and wondering will he drop, we could eat him. It’s a bit of a creepy story. Songs are full of stories and I find poems and songs can give great inspiration,” he said.
Another place Philip draws inspiration is from an island, just a mile and a quarter long, off the coast of Wales.
“I went there first in 1999 and went back on several occasions with musicians and singers from North Wales, who I met in the late-1990s. I fell for the island. It’s very quiet, there are about 10 people living there and there’s a bird observatory. The island has seascapes, landscapes, it’s got flowers, birds, people, it’s got everything and in a small area. I was there for 20 days in April as part of an artist-in-residence and I did 14 field paintings. I was also able to help out the observatory, which monitors bird migration coming through,” he explained.
Following exhibitions across local venues and outside the county in the ’80s and ’90s, Philip crossed another bridge, deciding to release a book of paintings in 2002, entitled Philip Brennan’s Clare.
“The Clare book was a big jump for me and led to a big exhibition, with over 50 paintings. It was something that happened by accident. I always had a notion of doing a book. Then a friend of mine did a wildlife of County Kerry book and we were sitting down looking at his proofs one day and he turned to me and said ‘did you ever think of doing something like a painting book?’ I said ‘yeah’. He said ‘of Kerry?’ and I said ‘no of course, of Clare’,” he said.
He put the wheels in motion and three years later released his first big publication. This was soon followed by his second book, Wanderings, in 2006.
Philip admits Wanderings was something he enjoyed far more, as he had decided to cut down on teaching and focus on his art at that stage.
“That book was based on a journal/diary I kept that went back about 20 years. It’s called Wanderings but if you look through it, about 75% of the paintings are from Clare. I used to take journeys off around Ireland painting but I think the further I got, the more I wanted to be back in Clare. People often say to me, why don’t you paint in West Cork or West Galway but I’m a Clare man through and through. There is just so much in the county,” he said.
He added, “Sometimes, if someone confines you, you can be better off”, but admits Clare is a place that is certainly not confining, with its rich and varying landscapes and seascapes.
This December, Philip will be adding another feather to his cap when he joins a wealth of artists from across the globe at the Florence Biennale exhibition in Italy. This is the first year he has been invited to exhibit at the prestigious international festival, which will feature up to 700 artists from 84 different nations.
“It’s been a great boost to be invited. I’ve only had one international show and that was the Irish International Fest in Milwaukee in 2007. This is only my second outing outside of Ireland,” he said.
Preparing for the festival hasn’t been easy, he admits, as he must choose three paintings to submit for the exhibition. Philip is now in the process of finishing potential paintings for the show and whittling his ideas down to three entries.
He will follow up this exhibition with a joint show with Dublin artist Clioghna Fox at the Courthouse Gallery in Ennistymon in August next year.
To view some of Philip’s works, visit www.philipbrennan.com.

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