TSEAC’s Easter Snow Gallery is thrilled to welcome an exhibition by J.B. Vallely to coincide with our Tradfest events.

 

J.B. Vallely, a painter and musician was born in 1941.   He studied at the Belfast College of Art, where he was taught by Tom Carr, and went on to further studies at the Edinburgh Art College before returning to his home town where he has lived and worked since.  An avid supporter of Irish heritage in terms of both sport and music, John B. founded the Armagh Piper’s Club in the 1966.    Not only did the club allow him to actively support traditional Irish music and pass on his own knowledge, but it became the meeting point for his love of music and his art.   Musicians are the dominant subject of his work.   

 

Well know musician, writer, lecturer and researcher on traditional music Dr.  Fintan Vallely will give a talk on the artist and his paintings and the connection between the paintings and traditional music  on the night.   There will also by live music by Caomhin Vallely and friends in our coffee shop. 

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J.B Vallely on Exhibiting in The Séamus Ennis Arts Centre:

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"When I was asked by Colette Lawless if I would like to exhibit in The Séamus Ennis Arts Centre in Naul, my thoughts immediately turned to memories of Séamus Ennis, particularly the time he stayed with us in my parents’ house in Armagh back in the late 1960s. I was delighted to be asked to exhibit.

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I have great memories of Séamus from the various times he came to play at my invitation at Armagh Pipers Club concerts

and the memorable sessions we had at the famous O’Tooles Bar in Ballymacnab and at Hayden’s Bar at The Rock in County Tyrone, not far from Pomeroy.

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What sticks in my mind was the drive to Hayden’s and Séamus’s response when I told him the bar was near Pomeroy. He

immediately began singing from the back seat the great song ‘The Mountains of Pomeroy’. He seemed to have endless

verses.

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I remember too when Séamus, along with John Kelly, Jim Dowling and Paddy Ban O’Broin, stayed in the old Drumsill House Hotel, one of the mansions owned by the McGeough Bond family and built in the early 19th century. During that stay Séamus and the rest of the musicians asked to visit Eamhainn Mhacha (The Navan Fort) a couple of miles west of Armagh City. I remember John Kelly getting absorbed in the ambience of the place and talking about Cuchullainn and the Red Branch Knights.

 

My last memory of Séamus was when I attended his funeral October 1982 in Naul, not far from where he had been living in a mobile home which he had named Easter Snow. Every musician in the country was there and he had a wonderful send off."

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This exhibition will be on show in our Easter Snow Gallery from 16th January - 22nd February.

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This exhibition can be viewed online or in our Easter Snow Gallery open daily from 10-4.00 p.m. To make an enquiry, please contact Colette on 087 9697054 or email: info@tseac.ie