Event

Living Portraits is a selection of drawn portraits by artist Rachel Macmanus of the residents of St Joseph’s Hospital in Ennis, Co. Clare. The exhibition is being hosted at glór in Ennis until 1 June as part of the 2019 Bealtaine Festival.
Rachel Macmanus visited St Joseph’s over a period in 2018 as part of a Clare Arts Office portraiture project. The residents themselves are not definable as a group, as of course they are individuals with different experiences and personalities. As they sat for their portraits, the artist chatted with them, hearing sad stories from someone’s past, talking to homesick individuals, or on other occasions laughing and joking with her sitter all day. She worked in pencil drawing, a medium recognizable in both historical and contemporary art, and which reflects the past and present lives of the St Joseph’s residents well.
Rachel Macmanus is an artist living and working in Ennis, Co. Clare. She works through drawing, painting and performance and is completing a fine art masters with OCA.