Were you ever so full of inspiration that you felt you could barely write? Well, that’s how I am today. It’s all because I’ve been soaking myself in what I consider to be my Tramore ~ and I haven’t even been for my daily swim yet!
Tramore has lots of different faces and many of these have been beautifully captured at two exhibitions that are running in town. My first port of call was the Church of Ireland Hall where I viewed the annual exhibition of a group of extremely talented artists.
It’s well over 30 years since the Art Group started exhibiting and the paintings seem to get better and better every year. The stand-out painting for me at this year’s exhibition was called One Misty Morning by Jimmy O’Brien-Moran that captured the historic and atmospheric Promenade here in Tramore.
I went straight from the Art Exhibition to a solo Photographic Exhibition by Sinead Boyle. It is being held at Tramore Coastguard Cultural Centre ~ which has a long history of its own, having once been the local Garda Station among other things.
I first met Sinead Boyle back in the ‘big snow’ of 2010 at sunset on the Victorian Doneraile Walk which overlooks Tramore Bay. We were later to be co-students on a Postgraduate Certificate course on Heritage/Tourism: Sense of Place run by the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (2012-2013).
I was completely captivated by Sinead’s exhibition which is called A Photographic Journey through the Lens: Sense of Place. She had told me soon after meeting that she had taken up photography as a teenager and was totally inspired by seeing a number of exhibitions that my father held in the 1980s.
Photo: Frank Tubridy c.1986
I had quite a sense of deja vu looking at the moodiness of Sinead’s photographs today. I just love the way she has included images of Tramore Bay in every conceivable light, at different times of the year and also both in its nakedness and fully clothed to host the thousands of visitors we receive each year.
I had lots of favourites, including Winter Solstice that portrays an elderly man walking on the beach as the sun was setting on December 21st. In so many ways, the image reminded me of Cicero’s book On a Life Well Spent that sustained me greatly through the last sixteen months of Father’s long life. Another was one called Indian Summer which portrays the Life Guards’ Hut when it was painted a striking and most vibrant orange.
Interestingly, though, I think my very favourite is a black and white photograph of the Promenade at night in Winter. To me, it epitomised Tramore in very much the same way that Jimmy O’Brien Moran’s painting had just an hour or so before.
Sinead Boyle’s exhibition runs for another week until August 17th. Don’t miss it!
SOCIAL BRIDGE ~ Jean Tubridy connecting with you from Ireland 
Sounds like a fabulous exhibition- does Sinead have a website? I love that photo of your dad’s there of the metal man.. ..what are the 3 towers? 🙂
Hi SV, yes a brilliant exhibition. No, Sinead doesn’t have a website YET but hopefully she will have one soon!
As for the ‘three towers,’ one of which is the Metal Man, they were built as maritime beacons after a terrible tragedy in the 1800s ~ the Seahorse tragedy. As you’ll see from the link, there are also three towers on the headland at the other side of Tramore Bay, Brownstown Head. Tramore Bay is easily mistaken for the the sea route up towards Dunmore East and onwards to Waterford and certainly isn’t suitable for large vessels.
http://www.tramore.ie/tramore/the-metal-man.html
Such inviting pics! I want to be there! There`s nothing I love more than losing myself in an art exhibition. Must do more of that before summer`s done.
Hi RH, thanks for writing. Yes, it was wonderful to have both the art and the photographic exhibitions overlapping with such variety and yet the common thread of Tramore running through both.