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North Star Art Gallery's new exhibition opens this Saturday with an exhibition of the works of Brian Keeler celebrating his ancestral lands of Ireland and Scotland.

Brian Keeler's portrayal of the Celtic Coastlines and Hebridian Highlands represent a return to his ancestral lands. The rugged western coastlines of Scotland and Ireland are presented here in this show at the North Star Art Gallery.

Keeler traveled to the southwest of Ireland in the autumn of 2016 to paint over a dozen small plein air studies of County Clare and County Kerry. The drama of light, air, topography and sea are expressed here in small studies that record the landscapes with immediacy of the painting process necessitated when working en plein air.

These rugged lands and dramatic coasts along with the Aran Islands provided the motifs for his work during that two-week period. Since returning he has done some larger versions based on those studies.

In Scotland, another two week trip in 2017 to the Outer Hebrides on the northwest flank of Scotland -these Hebridian Islands of Skye, Lewis and Harris provided the muse while there. The small Scottish coastal villages of Ullapool, Plockton and Achiltibuie offered the western facing evening light as the evocation to paint there and go further. The Celtic portal stones scattered around the British Isles, such as Poulnobrone in Ireland and Callanish in Scotland were visited and portrayed as well.

The Community Arts Partnership will sponsor an Art Trail Open House Saturday, August 4th from 11am to 4pm.

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