Piecing it together: Alicia Kelly Dempsey explores life and landscape in ‘Fragments’

Castlebar native Alicia Kelly Dempsey is set to unveil her debut solo exhibition at Westport Town Hall on Friday, April 3.

Now based in Westport, the visual artist will present ‘Fragments’, a collection of paintings spanning landscapes and portraits. Working across oil, acrylic and watercolour, Dempsey’s pieces explore both place and personal experience.

After spending several years away, Dempsey returned to the west of Ireland a decade ago. It was during the COVID-19 pandemic, however, that she reconnected with her passion for painting.

“For financial reasons, I went into education and did a bit of travelling,” she explains. “But around COVID time, I started to connect with my creativity again.”

Originally trained in graphic design, Dempsey says her desire to paint never fully disappeared. She now pursues painting alongside art education, delivering workshops through the TAP and BLAST programmes with the Mayo Education Centre, as well as running after-school classes.

“The rest of the time, I’m also a mother to three children,” she adds.

Dempsey typically works across multiple pieces at once, a process she says keeps her engaged.

'North Mall' - Alicia Kelly Dempsey

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“I move from one to another a lot because it keeps me interested. If something new catches my attention and I want to do it, I do it,” she says. “I have a whole list (longer than I can keep on top of) of subjects I want to try.”

Her work is often shaped by the rhythms of the seasons, with longer days proving most productive.

“When there’s more light in the morning and evening, it’s easier to paint. If I’m trying to emulate something in the morning, it might not look the same later in the day,” she explains.

Speaking ahead of the exhibition, Dempsey says the decision to fully commit to her art followed a turning point in her life.

“After a long time of leaving my creativity aside, a life event made me realise that if I don’t do it now, I never will.”

Returning to consistent practice was not without its challenges. 

“I questioned how I was going to pull everything together,” she says.

Ultimately, she embraced the fragmented nature of her process, an approach that inspired the exhibition’s title.

“I got to the stage where I thought, this is actually just how I work. This is me.”

‘Fragments’ brings together themes of family life, local landscapes and more abstract figurative pieces that carry a narrative element.

Having worked on the exhibition since 2023, Dempsey hopes viewers will find their own connections within the work.

“Some people will respond on an aesthetic level, others might connect more deeply,” she says. “I hope people recognise scenes or emotions that relate to their own lives.”

Alicia Kelly Dempsey’s ‘Fragments’ opens at Westport Town Hall on Friday, April 3, at 6 pm and runs until the end of the month.

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