Visual Art: Thomas Barron Retrospective Exhibition at KCAT (Kilkenny Collective for Arts Talent)

A mid-career retrospective of KCAT studio artist Thomas Barron. Over the last decade, Thomas has developed a rich body of paintings full of colour, intricate pattern and layered imagery. The show provides an insight into Thomas’s methodologies from his early workings to his more recent artworks and carefully considered compositions.

Thomas’s artwork honed and refined over his time in the studio promises a vibrant and thought provoking array of painting.

Join the opening on Saturday 14th July at 3pm at KCAT in Callan, Co. Kilkenny.  All very welcome to attend. The show continues until the 31st of July and is open from Monday to Friday 10am – 4pm.  

More information is available on the KCAT Facebook Page.

“The frenetic circles from which the composition begins are smoothed over with broad colour planes, dragged back to the surface, reconfigured, regenerated and polished down again. Thomas tells me he doesn’t remove paint, so much as builds with it — shape on top of shape. Sometimes there are people inside, but you won’t see them, they too are contained. An arm or the spill of a window-shape might emerge here and there, as might one of the stray circles escape its enclosure to take prize place in the final composition. Time can make or break a good painting too, and I ask Thomas how long he works on his canvases and what tells him when they are ready. I ask him this because Thomas’s paintings are beautiful at many stages, nearly from the very start, but that’s not enough for Thomas. He says they take him “about 6 days,” and then reconsiders, “maybe 6 months,” he says. Thomas is so engrossed in his work that time slows down or doesn’t matter inside that space. He knows a painting is finished when it is perfectly balanced and his finished works are always harmonious.” (Sonia Shiel, 2018).