ART Roads around Mayo Abbey inspire art works

’Stilt Barn Blue’, egg tempera by Paula Pohli.

Roads around Mayo Abbey inspire art works


Áine Ryan

Exhibition ‘Lino and Egg’ is ‘a response to the natural beauty of the Irish countryside and by extension country life and nature and raw beauty that I met on the roads around Mayo Abbey’. Thus says Dubliner, Paula Pohli, who, as a resident of Mayo, uses the lush natural life of the byways and boreens as her muse. Her new work will be on show in the Darc Space Gallery on North Great George’s Street, Dublin, from Thursday next, May 7, until May 29. In the recent edition of Exhibeo Art magazine, Jonathan Raddatz, a Canadian painter and writer, observes that Polhi ‘creates potent linocuts of the Irish landscape in all its moods and splendour’. Raddatz writes: “When I describe her as a master of the linocut print, I assure you that this is no hyperbolic statement. When you read about what goes into creating these absolutely sublime linocuts, you will realize that you are in the presence of a master of the craft. In the world of print making – and this is particularly true of woodblocks and linocuts – line and pattern rule supreme. “When I look at Pohli’s prints, I immediately recognize her total mastery over these two critical components. Hers is a thick, strong line, while her patterns play with the ambiguity of positive and negative space. This results in strong compositions that, while abstracted to the bare essentials, nonetheless remain rooted in reality: cottages, rock walls dwarfed by a big red sky; birds on a cliff; the geological features and ploughed fields of Mayo County; or the essential lines and patterns of an old shed.” He notes that her experimentation since 2011 with with painting tempera on wood panel has created ‘exquisite paintings’ combining her recognisable use of line and pattern.
For more on the artist Paula Pohli and her work, visit www.paulapohli-art.com.