There is something inherently sexy about painting - its tactile physicality, the way a canvas holds the wall, the sensuous licks of paint. With painting you can still detect the hand of the artist and the physical mark of invested work. The process still shows. And yet, I grow ever concerned with the struggling place of painting in the contemporary art scene. I constantly see extremely talented painters eclipsed by recent thrusts towards new media work. I understand that we are in the computer age but I am essentially still an old fashioned girl with a marked painting fetish. While I WANT to believe that something can be called 'art' just because it is accompanied by monotonous music, generated electronically, and explained by some obscure text - I just can't make that final leap. I still have painting on the brain.

And luckily for me, there are still painters out there dedicated to the cause. Dundalk, in fact, appeared recently to be a bona fide hotbed of painting exposition. Now closed for renovations, many of the final exhibitions at the Basement Gallery showcased the work of painters. Particularly notable (and equally delicious) were a series of ethereal paintings from Carl Doran's A Domestic Suite on display in August.

In his artist statement, Doran says that his work "attempts to appeal to the viewer on more sensual levels." Table (Set Two) rose to the occasion. In the center of this painting sits nothing but a table straddled by two empty chairs. At first glance, Table (Set Two) appeared almost devoid of light but, on closer inspection, it became apparent that a subtle spotlight was highlighting the table as if it were a stage setting. This theatrical whispering of light seemed to hint at some missed or unattainable moment; its creeping fingers full of an unavoidable lingering sadness. Most of Doran's ghost-like interiors, like Table (Set Two), were laced with this unshakable and haunting feeling of melancholy.

Similarly atmospheric but undeniably more aggressive was Doran's Speaker's Corner. While the title, along with an obviously prominent image of a lit fireplace, could reference comforting evenings around the hearth - my potentially criminal brain first read it as a house consumed by flames. Especially striking against this violent image was a background that was either so delicate it looked like glazed porcelain or fearlessly marred with clusters of crusted paint. This dramatic union made me think that I might not be so deranged after all and that Speaker's Corner was, in fact, an image expressing pathos through fire.

Carl Doran: A Much Maligned House, oil on canvas, 115 x 75cm

Steven Kelly: Never alone, sometimes lonely, 2001, oil, pastel and graphite on canvas, 99 x 122 cm; photo Pat Dalton; courtesy the artist

Courageously slashing his way into the painting mêlée comes Brian Flynn with The Power Dot Series. This exhibition, also at the Basement Gallery, marked Flynn's debut solo appearance in Ireland. Of Irish/Canadian descent, Flynn has been extremely active in the Toronto art scene but has moved to set up shop in Ireland. Hold onto your knickers, ladies...there is a new player in town and his mission is to paint.

The Power Dot Series, on one level, appeared to operate as an intriguing exercise in modern iconography. Within this work, imagery from various art-historical periods was set against contemporary icons culled from American consumer culture. In Power Dot Series #1, Flynn reworked a portrait by the 19th-century painter David then cleverly paired it with slick floating Wonder Bread dots (based directly on actual Wonder Bread packaging). Flynn's adept juxtaposition reminded us that, in days gone by, painting's references were pulled from high and lofty places such as heroic histories. Yet, in our contemporary society, polished commercial images have become our new visual icons.

Flynn's interests, however, seemed to also lie in pushing the potential of the painted medium. With The Power Dot Series #3 (a drawing of an antique teapot covered with a small army of slippery red targets), as with some other pieces, he used decaying antique player-piano rolls as the supports for his work. These delicate piano-roll pieces acted as a subtle foil to the more dynamic works on canvas. And yet, Flynn tempted The Power Dot Series #3's fate by aggressively manipulating its fragile surface. Staring at this disintegrating piece you realize how much we misjudge the permanence of our aesthetic sensibilities. Nothing is as ephemeral as the nature of art and taste.

Sometimes the pursuit of exceptional painting is worth a journey off the beaten path. If you have yet to visit the impressive Market Place Theatre and Arts Centre in Armagh City, perhaps it is time for a trip. The gallery's September exhibition, Fresh Strawberries, showcased work by members of twentyone twenty. Twentyone twenty is a collective made up twenty artists from the University of Ulster's first graduate group of the twenty-first century.

Brian Flynn: Woman with Wonder Bread Dots, oil on canvas, 152 x 122 cm.

Included in Fresh Strawberries was the work of nine of the members, and much to my delight, most of it was painting. There is a great relief in the fact (and a salty tear to the eye) that a new generation of artists is working in the painting medium. While it was very evident that all of the artists in twentyone twenty were working hard to place their marks, applause must go out to Una O'Grady and Steven Kelly. One common fault with the work of young painters is that it often becomes too self-conscious and tight, almost as if they are afraid of the paint. This is definitely not the case with these two artists.

O'Grady's Bogland at Ballyeamon was full of wide, thick, confident strokes that successfully transformed her larger-than-life canvas into a dynamic coffee-coloured landscape. O'Grady was not to be intimidated - she laughed in the face of her paint. Kelly's Never alone; sometimes lonely, however, possessed an oddly calm and serene quality. The painting's large rich expanse of chocolate brown and fields of baby blue were only subtly and beautifully marred by tiny cracks gaping like wounds. In the end, most of the work in Fresh Strawberries showed the promise of greater things to come. And so, without mercy, the circle of life

There is nothing quite like the experience of a successful painting - that one work that seems to fall together seamlessly and without any effort. When you see such a work the heart pounds, the palms get sweaty, and the pulse races. The only option is to go with the feeling and let your mind open to the true beauty of the painted stroke. So practice safe viewing, my friends, and always be prepared for that one mouth-watering moment.

Carl Doran: A Domestic Suite , Basement Gallery, Dundalk, August
Brian Flynn: The Power Dot Series , Basement Gallery, Dundalk, September
twentyone twenty: Fresh Strawberries , Market Place Gallery, Armagh City, September

Janet Naclia is a rogue art historian.