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First Art Festival Castletownroche June 2007
A Stall Holders Lot

Early Saturday morning Virtu - Art set off on our hour and a half journey to Castletownroche arriving just after 10:00am we were ready for what the next two days would bring. After setting out our stall I had a few moments to reflect and decided that as we were in the courtyard that, that would be the angle this article would take. To share with you our (Virtu - Art) and other stall holders view of the Art Festival. As a stall holder it is often the case that you are tied to the stall not being able to explore further than the courtyard. Virtu - Art is different in that Tony and I go together on our days out. This enabled me to take a few trips beyond the courtyard to take pictures of the proceedings. I have tried to capture our world from our point of view. Although the festival had many attractions in the town itself and in the grounds of Blackwater Castle over these two days. We (the stall holders) were assigned space and this is what we experienced of the two days of Castletownroche Art Festival.

Virtu - Art at Castletownroche exhibiting Art Glass panels, Glass Wind Chimes and Karin Smith Photography range West Cork Sunsets. In addition we had a painting from West Cork Artist Nick Taylor His painting Antuar An Tuar Mor (Toomore) West of Scull for sale, as seem on the back wall. Nick is a very interesting artist and a lot of interest was expressed in his most recent work.

Patrick Nordstrom as one of the organizers of the Arts Festival also took on the role of photographer for the day. I just like taking pictures of people taking pictures.

On days out it is the other stall holders which you talk to and catch up with being out of Virtu - Art's normal catchment area we were happy to meet Hilary Hale a Wood turner based in Kinsale. Hilary is on our Directory of Artist's and Crafters and we are pleased to feature her work.

Hilary Hale - Wood turner is a member of CAD (Cork Art + Design), West Cork Leader's Fuchsia Brand, member of the Irish Wood turner's Guild and registered with the Crafts Council of Ireland. She sells her work from her home Rincurran Hall Summercove, Kinsale and at occasional fairs and exhibitions.

Hilary works from her wood turning studio in Summercove on the way to Charles Fort and the Bulman bar from Kinsale. Usually working from storm felled, locally grown timber, she produces a variety of turned items including bowls, lamps, hollow forms, bottle stoppers and platters.

Elm is one of Ireland's native trees. They grew here long before the first humans arrived. A lot of Hilary's bowls are made from a tree that grew in Ennistymon, Co. Clare. It had died of Dutch elm disease.

Artists Statement: Hilary Hale - Wood turner In my gallery I try to show a representative sample of my work. Bowl turning takes up the majority of my time but I enjoy turning all sorts of things from small pieces such as bottle stoppers and cheese knives to tall table lamps. My work is numbered before it is displayed on my website. I keep a careful record of where the tree grew. I often work to commission using timber from the client's own trees.

Richard + Tricha were very interesting and entertained us with there sunny personalities for most of the weekend. However I did not see the dog! I should have asked were it was.

This is taken from the leaflet of Carnival Candles A family concern plus dog. Richard + Tricha say they are crazy about candles, and started their business in 2002. It was born out of frustration with cheaply produced commercial candles allegedly made in Ireland. They produce very solid, long burning candles of unusual designs. They produce a very special range of Ancient Celtic Spell Candles.

Carnival Candles are available from Nano Nagle Farmers Market every fortnight in Killavullen, Co. Cork. The only shop which has a selection of our candles is The Music Centre Ballymahon Street, Longford, as we tend to sell ourselves rather than sell them wholesale.

Here we see a local Woodsman using felled wood in his creation of Clocks and Barometers he also used locally quarried stone which is highly polished. Next then we have Marie Flaherty a B.A. in Fine Arts displaying ceramics.

Flintstone Furniture and Chain saw Carving This guy works as a tree surgeon with a company based in Mallow within the Nationwide Tree Care Division. He spent the two days down in the castle car park sculpting items of interest. His oversized mushrooms were very popular and the Heart shape sculpture emerged over two days.

Lady of the castle Nina Nordstrom bought a bowl which nature had given a great shape the branch was cut at each end.

As the morning turned to afternoon we could hear drumming within the castle grounds, Always just over there!. Finally they arrived in the courtyard to fit in a workshop and to cheer us all up. Then Rasta's arrived to join in bringing a stronger beat.

Within the courtyard there was a stairway which led up to a private collection of photographs and paintings of and from the Nordsrtom family. It was a personal and eclectic collection which Nina Nordstrom had put carefully together for public consumption. There were paintings dating back to the mid 1500's and photographs from the early 1900's. These were mixed tastefully alongside sculptural forms comprised of pebbles. At the end of the gallery was a space with a desk as though this was someone's inner sanctum. There the viewer imagined a famous person sat and contemplated life of the family. There more personal inner thoughts and aspirations were expressed. Overall it was a most enjoyable journey. I signed into the guest book my comments and returned to my stall.

Around five o'clock we could hear a piper approaching playing all along. He entered the courtyard circled twice and then laid down his pipes. Stopping for a cup of tea and a chat with family and friends. It was as though he was calling us to the end of the day for us in the courtyard. There was a sadness at that moment as the two days for us Virtu - Art and the other traders felt as soon after we began to pack up and go our tired ways.

Katie comes from the Clonakilty area in West Cork and was at hand to take donations for The Catletownroche Art Festival. Katie is good at collecting money as she told me shaking her bucket. We of course made a contribution and hope that others did also.

This time I managed to catch Patrick taking a photograph of Virtu - Art while I was taking a photograph of him

I would have liked to have taken more stories and pictures of other stall holders maybe even some from West Cork however, it seems that many stall holders that were due to attend on the Sunday pulled out and were unable to attend. This was a shame as this was the first Art Festival here in Castletownroche and needed supporting. I hope that next year it will be better attended by Artists and craft people with stalls.

Last words on Castletownroche it is very strange that Real Coffee was very hard to find here. Everywhere we asked for a cup of real coffee we were only offered instant. Unbelieveble but unfortunately true, after being in the town for one whole day without our caffeine hit David Gavin of Dino Cafe took pity on us an produced a large jug of Real Coffee with our breakfast. Thanks David we will remember your act of kindness but not the general lack of real coffee in Casstletownroche.

We enjoyed our two days and will return again next year. Thanks to the organizers Patrick and David. And Nina for allowing us to be within the beautiful setting of Blackwater Castle.

Links Associated with this article

• Virtu - Art Main Index Page
• Art Glass Tony + Karin Smith
• Karin Smith Photography West Cork Sunsets
• Etain Hickey Collections Clonalikty, Virtu - Wind Chimes
• Enchanted Skibbereen, Virtu - Wind Chimes, Art Glass
• Hilary Hale - Woodturner - Kinsale
• Marie Flaherty Painting + Ceramics
• Black Water Castle Patrick + Nina Castletownroche
• David Gavin - Dino Cafe Castletownroche
• Dermot Casey Nationwide Tree Care Division