An exhibition featuring portraits of people whom the artist met within her 5k during lockdown is now on view in a Wexford coastal community.
Robin Grundy: 5K is the work of Canadian-born artist and designer Robin Grundy, who has lived in Cahore, about 10km south of Gorey, for the last three years with her husband.
Early in the lockdown she found herself short of inspiration and decided to, initially, photograph, locals in the Cahore and Ballygarret areas while out walking, and then she used the photos to create portrait paintings of those neighbours.
"I literally just went on my 5K and if I bumped into someone I'd say, 'can I take your picture’. Some of the people I knew, some I didn’t know at all, I would just meet them on my walk," Robin Grundy told RTÉ News.
Subjects included the local shop assistant, a man she often encountered walking around the area, the postman, the art shop owner, and others.
"These are people I’ve only known briefly, or driven past, but stopping to have that little interaction with them was just brilliant. Now I update them on how their painting is going and they’re like local celebs, it’s just an amazing full circle experience."
Feedback has been "great," she said, with everyone loving the work.
The paintings are currently on display at The Strand bar and restaurant in Cahore, overlooking the sea, and visible through the glass windows while hospitality restrictions continue.
Publican and host Patrick Hanley says the reaction has been "amazing" to the work.
"We’re on a very popular coastal walk here and, on a daily basis, hundreds of people will pass our premises but ever since we’ve had the exhibition in the window everyone has stopped and interacted with it and looked at the information in the window.
"Everyone has a bit of time on their hands, they’ve had a bit of time on their hands, and it’s nice to be able to stop and chat about something else other than going to the shop. This has caused a nice distraction for people."
One of the portraits is of Laura Larkin and her husband, which was based on a photo taken while she was pregnant with son Adam, now a healthy baby.
"We said, why not, little did we know we’d end up in the windows of the local place… It’s a lovely memento of an era in my lifetime," she reflected.
"It kind of immortalises that strange period of lockdown. God bless these pandemic babies, they’ve not known anything else."
The exhibition itself "is so lovely" and community-based. "It’s brought people close together that you wouldn’t have even talked to in a few years, especially in Covid times. Even just coming up and getting a coffee here and looking at the paintings, you recognise people you mightn’t have seen in a long time."
Long-time resident Robin Adames was "captured" while out for a walk to get his shopping. "I met Robin just outside the Ballygarret shop and she took my photo and then of course she did the portrait. I think it’s pretty good."
