Longford Library gets a view of the world through Pat's eyes

Pat Hourican's Art Exhibition “As I See It” is currently on show in Longford Library and the Longford artist's work is getting a great reaction.
“The exhibition was launched by Fr Michael McGrath in the library. We had a good turnout and the paintings were really appreciated,” the artist told the Leader.

Pat has been painting since he was eight years of age. He started as a landscape artist and was initially heavily influenced by such Northern artists as Cecil McGuire and Paul Henry painters of the landscape of Connemara and the West of Ireland, a location that Pat finds inspirational to this day.
His latest exhibition drew on those inspirations: “Most of them are local to County Longford. There were five or six that were pictures of different areas of Connemara, Clifden and around that area. Three watercolours I showed were painted in Spain, around Majorca and Ibiza.”

Over the years Pat has expanded his repertoire of subjects to include portraits and still lives. He works primarily through the media of oils and water colour and he also teaches an Introduction to Watercolour Painting in Longford.
Pat said the Library show was very well received: “It was a great night. Around 65 people were there for the launch. There were a lot of familiar faces on the night of the opening. Over the course of the exhibition I sold around 10 of the paintings. ”

Plans for the next showing are still in the early stage: “I would like to build up a body of work before the next exhibition. So it will probably be a while.”

Pat says the support of The Arts Council was instrumental in the starting of the exhibition, while he thanked Doug Fox Roberts who prepared the paintings for exhibition and the catering of Louis Herterich.

Pat Hourican's Art Exhibition “As I See It” launch took place on Monday, August 14 in Longford Branch Library and is available to view up to September 4.