Reasons to be Cheerful is an exhibition of oil paintings and watercolours by Noël O’Callaghan, inspired by the landscape and the artist’s relationship with this subject. There are also a number of self-portraits included.  

Many of the works in the exhibition have evolved over a long period of time. Some began in a Mayo bog in the late 90s, were worked on in her studio in Berlin over the next twenty years and were further worked on up to recently in her West Cork studio. Despite the long incubation period, the paintings still have a spontaneity and lightness of touch. Other paintings were faster in their completion. The examples presented from the self-portrait series were painted in one sitting three to six hours and were made on a significant dates such as birthdays, Christmas or New Year.  The surface values are an important element in the artist’s work. Brushstrokes are in evidence and layers range from the unpainted canvas to thick impasto passages. 

One of O’Callaghan’s favourite artists, Edvard Munch, wrote in his diary in January 1892 “I felt a great scream through nature”. In the late 19^th century, when industrial development  began to impact greatly upon the landscape and lives of people, alienation became a subject for art and literature.  The works in the exhibition ‘Reasons to be Cheerful’ engage with contemporary feelings of alienation. Moments of lyrical intensity, where we are carried out of ourselves in relation to nature or the ‘other’ also carry sadness in that we instinctively recognise the transience of all things including ourselves. These works are about the rawness of such moments, not primarily about the scene, but rather expressing the energy or mood of these encounters with nature.  

Noël O’Callaghan acknowledges that today, nature is in many ways damaged and our relationship with it is strained.  We have a need to re-affirm this relationship but at the same time we are often undermining it.  For example, urban dwellers wishing to enjoy nature often have to use polluting means to reach it.  When they get there, photos taken can be shot off into the aether and immediately viewed by someone else on the other side of the world, and are often more important than the actual experience of being in nature, except for dogs and other animals, who, in the artists paintings, engage with the much sought after ‘now moment’ thus transcending any alienation. 

The title of the exhibition can be taken both as ironic and sincere.  To experience intensity and express it artistically is a reason to be cheerful in a time when there are so few. The act of painting for Noël is an expression of joy and her paintings provide an opportunity to be cheerful, even if it is a second-hand experience of a moment. The act of experiencing art creates a different kind of moment but it can also be a joy, just like being in nature. 

Artist Statement 

“I make art to process and clarify my immediate surroundings and situations. I cut out extraneous detail in order to see the essentials in my environment. I am motivated by the quest for these essentials in every situation. Painting and drawing require a constant evaluation to assess what level of distraction is legitimate and what diverts from the essence of the subject. The forms suggest a narrative which is fluid and open to interpretation.  In a broader sense my work is about the undermining of ‘absolutes’ and the search for a truth that is relative.  I am deconstructing the landscape painting by leaving the construction of it open to the viewer and by simultaneously referencing its two-dimensional and three-dimensional nature.  I ask the viewer to suspend their disbelief and enter this two-dimensional world while always reminding them that this is a painting, a construction of mine. My signature is sometimes used as an element of the work to underline this. The ‘ground’ or unpainted areas are balanced against the painted within the composition, and negative space plays an important role in my work. I employ reduction and abstraction while retaining a representational context. The way abstract marks are positioned in relation to other marks or the suggestive nature of titles are techniques I use to elicit contextual readings.  

The colour and tones suggest the mood. I want the forms to be decisive in execution but at the same time to evoke ambiguity, like shapes on the edge of perception, a lingering mood on awakening from a vivid dream. I also want to make something of beauty, by which I mean a work that satisfies my own personal aesthetic of sparse lyricism and unsentimental romanticism. Among my influences are the German expressionists, the abstract expressionists, the Fauves and of course, the work of my father which I was surrounded by growing up. The recurrence of framing devices within my work is, perhaps a reference to his handmade frames. I am making paintings of landscape paintings, those that linger in the corners of my memory.  

Other influences on my work, outside of visual art, are music and literature, in particular, Jane Austen and Punk Rock. I would describe my approach has a synthesis of these two apparently disparate elements. Austen’s work is often taken to be about romance, but I would say that it is about appearances and surface values. She spent many years writing and re-editing her six novels referring to her work as “two inches of ivory” on which she worked using “the best-chosen words” Near the end of Northanger Abby (the novel about novels) she remarks that “…my readers, who will see in the tell-tale compression of the pages before them, that we are all hastening together to 

perfect felicity…”. This meta sentence with it’s breaking of the suspension of disbelief,  the light, confident self-deprecatory tone, and the acknowledgement of the of the material physicality of the book are something I relate to in my paintings. Punk Rock was the music of my generation and a breath of fresh air when it arrived. It imbued everything with an energy and directness – a ‘just do it’ attitude which I always want to hold on to.” 

Biography 

Born in Cork City, Noël O’ Callaghan’s early art experience was in the studio of her father, the artist, Diarmuid O’Ceallachain (1915-1993), who was teacher of painting at the Crawford College of Art, Cork. She also studied for a time at the Crawford College but found the art school system restrictive and left to follow a course of self-study through constant life-drawing and plein-air painting.  After she graduated in English and History from University College Cork she worked as a professional actor, singer and percussionist in both Ireland and Berlin where she moved to in 1986 and lived up until recently. She now has a studio in West Cork. She has exhibited widely with solo and juried shows in Germany, Ireland, China, the U.S. and U.K. and has taken part in many festivals and events.  Projects in 2024 included a collaboration with Douglas Henderson called Feathers for Rosa, a tribute to Rosa Luxemburg which premiered at The New Theatre, Dublin in March 2024 and included, painting, performance, music, poetry and film.  The film of the same name from this event was selected and screened at IndieCork Festival. In June 2024, her solo show ‘Changelings in Nighttown’ at the Michaela Helfrich Gallery Berlin, was part of the Zeitgeist Irland 24 programme, which was supported by Culture Ireland funding. She also took part in the summer group exhibition ‘Pink is my Colour’ in the Oliver Cornet Gallery, Dublin. She was also part of a showcase exhibition of the Contemporary Irish Art Society in Dublin in April. She was featured artist on The Artist’s Well podcast on June 8^th. She had a solo exhibition ‘Cornfields and Other Constructions’ at Cnoc Buí Arts Centre, Union Hall. Her work Snakelady was selected from an open submission as the cover image of an anthology of art and literature published by Arlen House in September 2024. She has just completed a two-month residency at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre and has published the calendar Madra– a West Cork Bestiary based on the results of her research into the animals of West Cork and their Significant humans.