The Leitrim Design House were delighted to welcome a new exhibition of paintings on ARTWALL entitled 'Back to my Roots' by a very talented painter, Kate Beagan. This exhibition opened on August 1st and ran through September 2019. Most of Kate's work for the last several years had concentrated on the landscape around her home and how light meanders through her local small country roads. Born and raised in Co. Monaghan, Kate is well used to travelling through narrow roads that meander forever, for it is said that Monaghan has more roads than any other county in the country. 

The artist is conscious that life nowadays has become so busy that at times we forget to appreciate what is in front us as she states:

These paintings are a reminder to myself how much beauty is out there when travelling through the small roads of Ireland. So when it comes to heading West towards the coast and through the long lovely county of Leitrim with its beautiful rivers and wonderful mountains I begin to understand the light of this country better. By the time one gets to the midlands the sky opens up, the small roads are there with farms that have been in families for generations but one can feel the vastness of the Atlantic coming towards them.

Kate loves the visual drama of a painting and how the contrast of light and darkness through tone and colour brings attention to the focal point in a powerful way. She finds the process of layering and shifting the paint on the canvas is as important as the subject matter. Every brush stroke and layer is there to enhance and has a relationship with the rest of the painting. Oil on canvas is her medium of choice.