Dappled things
Dappled Things, an exhibition of paintings by Betty Christie will run at the Graffan Gallery, Castle Espie, from Saturday 19 February to Sunday 6 March 2011.
Betty Christie’s childhood was spent in the countryside, outside Limavady. She came to Belfast, as an art student, in 1971, and graduated with First Class Honours in 1975. She then achieved an Art Teachers’ Diploma in 1976.
She is a member of the Arts’ Society of Ulster, the Pastel Society of Ireland, the Watercolour Society of Ireland, and the Dublin Painting and Sketching Club. She exhibits in the Yard Gallery in Holywood, and the Battletown Gallery in Newtownards, as well as in many other group shows, and has been selected a number of times to exhibit with the Royal Ulster Academy, most recently in 2010. She has previously had solo shows in the Bay Tree in Holywood, Flowerfield Arts Centre, Portstewart, and Phoenix Park Visitors’ Centre, Dublin. She has received a number of awards, and has work in collections of Lisburn City Council, Enterprise Ireland, and the National Watercolour Collection at Limerick University.
She has lived in Belfast for nearly 40 years, but her work is still influenced by her rural upbringing, her parents’ cottage garden, animals, birds, wildflowers, fields, the coast, and natural forms found within the landscape. She works in pastel, in watercolour, and in mixed-media. Pastel has a rich, velvety intensity of colour, in contrast to the delicate fluidity and transparency of watercolour, and both media are perfect for the subject matter which she is most passionate about, and which continues to inspire her most; nature and the natural environment.
Her exhibition, “ Dappled Things”, the title of which is taken from the first line of “Pied Beauty “, by Gerard Manley Hopkins, is, like the poem, a celebration of the colour, pattern, beauty and diversity of nature.
When visiting the exhibition, why not drop into our retail shop, have a snack or meal in The Loughshore Café or visit our extensive wetlands and make a real day out.
Normal admission price is applicable to the wetlands but access to the visitor centre, gallery and car park is free.
