Kate Fitzgerald began her journey into the artworld by achieving an honours degree in Fine Art Printmaking in Crawford College of Art & Design and continued on to do a Post Graduate in 'Safe Printmaking Techniques'.  She went on to work alongside Maud Cotter a member of Aosdána, in the National Sculpture Factory. Kate also taught art in St Johns Central College and Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa, Cork.

Kate returned home to Clonakilty in 2001 to open her own business 'The Loft Gallery' where she also lives and works. As well as having her own  successful solo exhibitions, she curates shows by established and emerging artists.  Kate has exhibited in many galleries and her work has been purchased by private and public collectors extensively in Ireland, across the U.K., Europe, U.S.A. and Australia.

Since childhood Kate has long been inspired by the everchanging infinite landscape of West Cork,  often returning to  the same places to paint.  In doing this she has forged a connection with the landscape, which can be seen in her work by the use of bold brush strokes, moving the paint through the canvas, layering and mark making to capture moments and memories.

To the sea, all things lead to the sea
As a small island, it encompasses us and in some way I feel has helped mould us.
The ever changing movement of the tides, the changing of the seasons, the varied and diverse geology of our coast has always been a deep source of inspiration for me.
For a long time most of the decisions I have made in my life revolve around my relationship to the sea and its ever changing moods.
I have always been most at peace floating on the sea with nothing but the birds watching over Me. There is a great sense of tranquility to be found in the isolation of being completely alone and at the mercy of the sea.
A constant through all of my work has been a deep fascination with the shapes of water. These fleeting moments as light bounces off something that is never fixed or permanent. The lines and textures that are created.
It was my driving force to start photography, it's why I first chanced swimming in the ocean with a camera.
For the longest time, I have felt so lucky to watch the water move and dance and have been compelled to try to share those moments with others through photography, film & sound.
As part of this multidisciplinary project, I would hope that in my own work, it will help highlight the beauty of our small little corner of the county to the German public and strengthen the on going relationships between both countries but also to document the exhibition in both stils and video so as to provide marketing materials to both council groups in Germany and Ireland and an archival record of the event taking place.

The process of making a piece of art

Pauline Walsh, Landscape Artist from Skerries Co.Dublin now living in West Cork. During her time in Dublin, Pauline worked for Don Bluth Studios and worked on the classic movies “Land Before Time”, “All Dogs go to Heaven” and it’s sequel “All Dogs II”.
Pauline’s work while nature based tend to include bodies of water, from large seascapes to vast iceberg – stewn vistas. However living close to the beautiful woodlands of West Cork, has inspired Pauline to create paintings that give a sense of being immersed in those forests. She paints using oil on canvas, building up textures to create this feeling of depth.
Pauline has exhibited throughout Ireland, her work is widely collected and commissioned both privately and commercially and is included in the following collections – Hennessey, Roxy New York, Jeremy Irons and the Deptartment of the Marine.

West Cork Artist Aidan O’Regan, has established a reputation as a colourist of immense ability.

A love of nature and an ability to deconstruct his environs to its constituent colours, allows him to interpret the coast and hinterland of West Cork in a fashion so subtle that the viewer is immediately engaged.

His works are inspired by the compass of light that exists across the seasons of West Cork landscape.  From the piercing blues of direct summer light and panoramic purples and pinks of a June evening, warm comfortable autumnal reds and oranges, long cold steel winter light, all of these producing the subtlest of nuances from Aidan’s palette.

“The challenge of making the impossible work, colours that should never lie together, that shouldn’t work, making these colours come together is where I see triumph”

Born in Dublin in 1956, Éadaoin HardingKemp was raised and educated in Cork city, where she later attended The Crawford Gallery Art College from 1973 to 1977. On graduation with a Fine Arts Degree, she won the prestigious 'Student of the Year' award and the opportunity to exhibit in the Lavit Gallery, the premier gallery in the city.

Having gained a full time art teaching post for a number of years, Éadaoin decided to move to wonderful, beautiful rural West Cork and dedicate herself entirely to painting. The landscape of wild untamed beauty and the everchanging seascape became her inspiration, which continues to this day.

From the initial exhibition in 1977 Éadaoin has to date held twenty six solo exhibitions and been involved in numerous group shows also across the island of Ireland. Presently she is exhibiting in galleries in Waterford, West Clare and Cork city and county. Her work is highly sought after and in constant demand, making her one of Ireland's premier and longstanding painters. Éadaoin has work in many famous collections, including Trinity College Dublin, Allied Irish Bank , Office of Public Works,
Korean Embassy, University College Cork and HSE Cork University Hospital, to name but a few.
As for private collections, her paintings have travelled the globe to U.S.A., Asia, Australia, New Zealand and most European countries, including Germany.

Geraldine O’Sullivan is a full-time artist and a native of West Cork. She graduated from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, with First Class Honours in 1981. She now lives and paints from her studio in Ballylibert, Castlefreke, West Cork. 

Geraldine has had numerous solo exhibitions and has been included in many group exhibitions in Ireland, the UK and New York. Her work features in public and private collections including the Office of Public Works, Tralee Institute of Technology, The Health Service Executive, and Dun Laoighaire County Council.

Shane O Driscoll is an Irish visual artist. He studied Visual Communications and is a member of Cork Printmakers and Backwater Artists Group.

He has exhibited his work internationally and throughout Ireland. Shane has work in the permanent collection of The National Gallery of Ireland, Crawford Art Gallery, Trinity College Dublin, UCC, UCD and has also displayed work in The Irish Print Museum.

 Jim Turner graduated with a degree in Ceramics and Sculpture at Camberwell College of Art. He taught ceramics and sculpture at the West Cork Campus (Rossa College) Cork College of Commerce for 14 years.
 Jim has lived and worked in West Cork for over 40 years with his partner Etain Hickey at the Rossmore Pottery. He has been involved with clay for all of seventy years having been born into a pottery family.
Jim’s work is ever evolving with many diverse influences from encounters with the West Cork land and seascape, anonymous Minoan pottery, architecture, sailing Greek waters (he has always made boats {vessels}), and a myriad of diverse experiences that register in the unconscious mind.
New directions with his work had focused on hand built forms (using his own recipe for paper clay incorporating cellulose fibres, molochite and deflocculant), which explore applied textures and glaze finishes. This exploration of the possibilities of using paper clay for hand building sculptures continues.  The alchemy of for ever changing minerals & clay by fire, and the serendipity resulting from ‘happy accidents’, invigorates the creative process. There are always surprises!

Maria Vill, PhD

Künstlerin – geb. 1971 in Gerolzhofen – Abitur in Elsenfeld – Logopädie-Examen – Studium der Freien Kunst an der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar – Studium an der Ecole supérieure d'art visuel Genf – Diplom Freie Kunst 2000 – PhD Weimar 2014

– lebt in Berlin

David Mannstein

Künstler und Ausstellungsmacher – geb. 1958 in Bad Hersfeld – Abitur in Fulda – Studium Mathematik und Physik – Kfz-Meister – Studium der Freien Kunst an der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar – Diplom Freie Kunst 1997

– lebt in Berlin