“The paintings and poems are drawn from the same wellspring - the river Dodder, which runs from its source in the Wicklow Mountains down into the city of Dublin where it enters the river Liffey.
While artist and poet have known and admired each other for more than twenty years, they came to the Dodder separately, unaware of each other’s long relationship with the river.
Donald Teskey has lived close to the since the 1980s and has made paintings in this location for decades. The proximity to the Dodder allowed him to access this valuable resource which has produced an especially vibrant and freeing body of work. These paintings were made during an unusually long snowfall in 2018. It allowed Teskey to take a new palate to a familiar place and to feel foreign or blinded slightly in a landscape he has called his home.
For Amanda Bell, whose poems often recall the minutiae of the natural world or the banality of everyday objects which expand into complex meaning. Not unlike Teskey’s paintings which elevate the visible into greater meaning, Bell’s poems unlock great truths with small observations. Her poems in this series recall the great Louis MacNeice, especially in his monumental 1967 poem, 'Snow''— Oliver Sears Gallery.
Copies of the book, 'Winter Heliotrope', will be available for sale at the exhibition.
Image: (detail) Donald Tesky, 'Winter Heliotrope VIII', 2023, courtesy Oliver Sears Gallery.
