Colours of Metal in The Sun is a collection of artworks that shine with insights by artists who are moving from strength to strength. Alan, Owen, Shane, Harry, Matt, John Paul, Abigail, Kayleigh, Dylan, Cian and Andrew have created paintings and drawings that shimmer with the energy they put into their art.

The variety of rich observations shared in this exhibition is a beautiful, partial map of the days that the group worked as a collective in VISUAL. Each artist brought the bedrock of their individual life experiences, interests and dreams giving each a unique position to see the landscape of our shared world.

At the outset of this suite of workshops the collective of artists began to explore the VISUAL exhibitions focusing on artworks about stones: humans moving rocks, giants moving boulders, making places and marking spaces. Bridging the Spring and Summer seasons the galleries, in which the artists worked as their temporary studio, have offered access to abstract expressionist Burren boulders, birds eye views of landscapes, an artefact of the Giant’s Causeway and images of historic and contemporary stone sculptures.

When not busy in their studio at VISUAL, the group worked en plein air at the Brownshill Dolmen. There the artists drew concentratedly and wondered about why and how people created this huge landmark before returning to depicting the landmarks within the landscape of their imaginations.

The artists gathered texture rubbings of paths and outlines of pebbles, they played with kinetic sand, assembled stone sculptures and stretched their bodies in the shape of their paintings all to expand their experiments with painting and drawing.

Through their explorations of colour and layers of mark making each artist developed their own visual language for depicting places and situations that matter to them. From layers of time spent working through making, meaningful places, both real and invented, emerged in the artworks: formula 1 race tracks; Waterford Hospital; a gym and a sugar factory to name a few.

To feel the details of the artworks bristle to life through the interplay of image and title is another beautiful layer to encounter in many of these artworks. These drawings and paintings have undeniable presence and a sense of truth that we are incredibly proud to exhibit at VISUAL and with kind permission in Lennon’s.

We would like to acknowledge the tireless support and collaboration of Amy, Eileen, Gabby, Paula, Sandra and of course the guidance and enthusiasm of Mary Jo Gilligan who led the project and Carlow County Council's support through the Arts Act Grant.

VISUAL has been developing a holistic, community-led collaboration with the Cairdeas Centre, Tullow since 2023. The Cairdeas Centre exists to empower people with a wide range of learning and associated disabilities, to live full and satisfied lives as equal citizens. The Cairdeas Centre approached VISUAL to develop a project together in 2023, resulting in a series of 12 workshops with 12 service users and closing with an exhibition in our galleries. The success of this project led to further collaboration, we received Arts Act Grant funding from Carlow County Council in 2024 and 2025 to deliver a series of short projects including workshops, fieldtrips and exhibitions developed by the service users. This enthusiastic, community-driven collaboration is now at the heart of our programme at VISUAL.