Olive Stack Gallery Writers Week Exhibition 31st May - 28th June 2008

Featuring exciting new work by Mia Carney, Mia Foley, Ella Kavanagh, Eoin de Leastar, Michael Loyer & Olive Stack

Mia Foley

Mia was born on the southwest cost of Ireland. She was awarded a scholarship from the Erasmus Foundation for a term of funded study at the Facultade De Bellas Artes, Universidade de Vigo, Spain in 1993. Graduating with a Fine Art Degree (Honours) from the Limerick School of Art & Design in 1995, Mia went on to win the Taylor Award for the most promising Emerging Irish Artists in relation to her work portraying the elderly in local nursing homes. Several of her paintings have been featured both on the covers of books and to illustrate text including A Journey into Alzheimer's Disease published in 2003 by Riverwood Books. Mia relocated to America in 2001 where she spent a two-year tenure as Artist- in- Residence at Westhaven Centre for the Arts, Trinidad, California. She returned to Ireland in 2004 and now focuses on working from life through paintings and drawings at her studio in Co. Clare

Ella Kavanagh

Ella was born in 1962 and is a native of Clonmel. Her artistic career developed after attending classes with artist Eoin de Leastar. She initially pursued her passion for drawing and several years later turned to painting. Still life and the nude are Ella's main focus with many of her still lifes capturing a history of old Irish kitchen-ware and household 'curios'. Ella has been offered several residencies at Cill Rialaig, the Artists Retreat in Ballinskelligs and has exhibited extensively in Ireland, Europe and the US.

Eoin de Leastar

Eoin was born in Cork in 1955 and briefly attended University before pursuing a career in art. He now lives on Sliabh-na-mban, Tipperary where he paints and works in ceramics and bronze. He contributes to Start art magazine essays on 'Problems of Truth for the Painter.' Eoin has had residencies in the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Co. Monaghan and Cill Rialaig Artists Retreat in Kerry and has exhibited in Ireland, UK, USA, Italy, Slovenia and Austria. Eoin has a forthcoming solo exhibition at the Narrow Space Gallery in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary opening on the 6th of June '08 and will be giving a Portrait Workshop in Cill Rialaig in the coming month.

Michael Loyer

American born Michael Loyer was born in 1950 and has now returned to his roots in County Tipperary. Michael spent several years as Artist and Arts Lecturer in the USA having gained his Master of Fine Arts at the University of North Carolina in 1974. He has exhibited throughout Ireland, the USA, Europe and the Middle East.

Olive Stack

Olive was born in 1974 and graduated from the Limerick College of Art & Design, where she studied painting from 1992 - 1995. Subsequent to leaving college, she worked for a time as a muralist and received several major commissions. She held her fist solo exhibition, officially opened by the late Charles Haughey, in Listowel in 1996 and has since exhibited throughout Ireland, the UK and the USA. Olive lives and works in Listowel where she opened her gallery in 1998. A book 'North Kerry the Magic and Legend' featuring over thirty of Olives Paintings has recently been published. She has also had a residency in Cill Rialaig Artists Retreat.

Mia Carney

Mia Carney lives in Kilcash Co.Tipperary.Her great passions are Landscape and People. This painting is from her 'Beloved Two' Series and depicts the intimacy shared between a loving couple, the moments that make memories, immortalized on canvas