Shiel shines at RHA / art and fire engines (Friday April 24, 2004)

compiled by Susan García

Sonia Shiel takes Hennessy Craig Scholarship at RHA

The painter Sonia Shiel snapped up the third Hennessy Craig Scholarship of 10,000 euro last week. She was presented with the award at the Prize Giving Ceremony which took place on 16 April at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin. Rival nominees were Geraldine O'Neill, Colin Martin and Comghall Casey.

Her painting Party candy was selected by the Academy as an 'oustanding work' in this year's 174th Annual Exhibition, the opening of which took place on Monday 19 April and, as usual, drew in the crowds.

Sonia Shiel: Party candy, oil on canvas, 62 x 60"; courtesy the artist / RHA

The scholarship is designed to "enable a painter to pursue a course of self-determined or formal study in Ireland or abroad" and "is open to any painter under the age of thirty-five exhibiting in the open submission of the AcademyÍs Annual Exhibition."

Shiel is a Dublin-based artist. The emphasis of her work over the last five years has been on "the process and physicality of paint, negotiating subject and ground." She has had solo exhibitions in the Cross Gallery, Dublin and in the Sligo Art Gallery.

Sonia Shiel: Friut tree II, oil on Canvas, 61 x 61"; exhibited at the Cross Gallery March, 2004; image held here

Influenced by the North West Coast of Ireland, much of Shiel's work interprets the "apparent manifestations of loss and resilience" in its landscape, and its people's attempts to adapt and in some cases abandon. She also explores similar tensions between decadence and austerity in the process of painting.

Aidan Dunne in the Irish Times described her paintings as "subtle and oblique," but he says

they are also informed by the artist's exceptional attention to process, a self-critical watchfulness of her own judgements. The result is a body of work that is extremely, though quietly, rich and vital... Shiel tries to negotiate another position for herself, a pictorial space that is equal to the complexities and paradoxes of experience. In what is her most accomplished work to date, she does so quite successfully...she surprises us...she takes risks that pay off handsomely.

...though art prizes aren't just about money

There's no harm in being able to pocket 10,000 euro, as described above, but there are other rewards. For example, nine-year-old Michelle van der Poel is the winner of the Berkeley Fire Department's art contest. Her prize: a ride to school on a fire truck. Seven other Berkeley schoolchildren will receive prizes in the department's Centennial Art Contest.

To mark 100 years of service, the department held a contest earlier this year asking children from kindergarten through eighth grade to submit artwork with the theme "What a Berkeley Firefighter Means to You." Sixty-eight entries were received in a variety of mediums from crayons to colored pencils.

All winners and recipients of honorable mentions will receive art kits. Classes with the most participation in the contest will be treated to ice cream parties at two fire stations.

Most recent news items:
• Wilde x 2 in art gift for Galway (Thursday 22 April 2004)
• Catalyst appeal / Rwanda commemorated in Belfast-Bray art cooperation (Wednesday, 21 April 2004)
• Europe to light up Dublin Sky (Thursday 15 April 2004)
• Vermeer's woman: no oil painting but she's the real thing! (2 April 2004)

For a full list of news items, click here.

Latest reader feedback:
News item 603  I have to say I agree with Circa. I have been working on a projec...
News item 624  The idea of exhibiting a group of objects bought on eBay, though ...
News item 617  It'd be interesting to see how many visitors attended the gallery...
News item 603  re. Comment 2 - most people who get turned down for grants have t...
News item 603  'sour grapes aside, what are culture ireland up to?' i think we n...
News item 606  hang on a minute... surely the feller who won the prize at art st...
News item 603  As someone who received a grant from Culture Ireland this year, f...
News item 602  try and make work that doesn't topple over in future!...

(For fuller feedback list, click here.)