This article is from page 30 of the 2007-10-30 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 30 JPG
ANNE Marie Bourke (nee Collins), Limerick and formerly of Kevin Pa- rade, Killaloe held a most interest- ing and colourful exhibition at the Abbey Court Hotel during the bank holiday weekend.
Anne Marie, who comes from a most artistic and musical Killaloe family, is daughter of Danny and Maureen (nee Ryan) and a niece of the late Killaloe tenor, Sean Ryan.
As a young child, Anne Marie was always seen with her drawing pad
and pencils and frequently sat on the Canal Bank wall sketching the many interesting sights, buildings, hills etc around her. It is not surprising that the inspiration for many of her paint- ings comes from her native Killa- loe. She vividly recalls her very first painting, – a little boy seated under a tree cuddling his dog, which was completed at the tender age of twelve years.
Anne Marie is a Self-taught artist who works in watercolour, oil and pastel and indeed she sometimes combines other media to create
mixed media works.
“T always let the subject I am paint- ing dictate the medium I use and the result never fails to be visually stim- ulating,’ she explains.
Flowers are among her favourite subjects but she also paints splendid landscapes, lakeside scenes, sea- scapes, nostalgic buildings/scenes and still life.
In the summer, Anne Marie trav- elled to Venice and Provence where she tutored students from all over Eu- rope. She also painted for the Les-tr- ois-puits Gallery in Provence where
her work is currently on display.
In spite of her extremely busy schedule, she finds time to pass her knowledge and expertise on to other aspiring artists through the work- shops she conducts around Munster. Through these events she passes on liberating techniques to help stu- dents become free in their work and develop their own individual style.
Anne Marie is a director of Gallery 75, a professional associate of SAA London and a member of Limerick Art Society where she was chairper- son from 1999 to 2001.