Tipperary man Sean Walsh stages art exhibition in his home town

A Clonmel man now living in Ballydrehid, Cahir, is currently staging an art exhibition at Clonmel Library.

Glass Reflections is the title of the exhibition by Sean Walsh, which continues at the library until next Saturday, September 23.

Sean says that the exhibition of painted leaded glass is “structuralist in nature, that is to say the core of each work has at its base a skeleton of lines and curves, carefully chosen and placed according to a system of measurements called the Golden Section, or Phi D’Or.

“I believe there is sufficient evidence both in and around us in nature to conclude that there is a fundamental, universal system of organisation which we all, by intuition, recognise and use in our daily lives, whether at the mundane or imaginative level.

“Who among us has not arranged furniture or ornaments, chosen clothes or hair styles, or planned a garden so that our sense of things ‘looking right’ is satisfied,” he says.

Sean is the son of the late Bridget and Jack Walsh from Southview, Irishtown, Clonmel.

For many years the family operated a shop that was know far and wide as “Mammy Walsh’s”.

A graduate of the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, Sean taught for more than forty years at St Ailbe’s School in Tipperary Town, following a brief spell at a school in Crumlin.

He is also known as a fiddle player of some repute and was an All-Ireland traditional champion.

In his younger years he was a member of the Knocknagow Céilí Band, which was trained by Ms O’Meara.

He is married to Nuala and the couple have a son Aaron and daughter Niamh.

“In my work I try to create a unity of elements. I see this as a common thread between the most ancient artworks down to the present day.

“This quest for compositional purity is to me both timeless and essential. It is the yardstick I use to judge the validity of my work and I invite the viewer to do the same,” he says.