SCHOOLWORKS - VISUAL

VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art &
The George Bernard Shaw Theatre

SCHOOLWORKS

Blaise Smith ARHA

06 Oct 2012 - 06 Jan 2013 |

Commission by Presentation College Carlow

This year the artist Blaise Smith has been working on a series of 16 paintings commissioned by Presentation College Carlow, a co-ed secondary school in Carlow. The school itself is the subject of the paintings and the series overall is a sort of portrait of the school, its staff and pupils, and by extension the education system of today.
Smith paints exclusively from life, setting his easel up in class, painting the students and teachers and the fabric of the school itself. He is a realist painter, whose paintings are as he puts it: “What I see is what you get”. Apparently meticulous in their detail, on closer inspection the paintings are actually quite loose with the immediacy of any painting from life. This style has won him many followers and he has exhibited widely throughout Ireland, and annually in the Royal Hibernian Academy where he was recently elected an Associate Member.
A full colour publication has been produced to document this commission and is available to purchase from VISUAL.