The Irish artist Lorcan Vallely has been working in Barga over the past couple of weeks preparing charcoal drawings on canvas boards for an exhibition of his work to be seen later on this summer in Ireland. The canvases, all featuring images from 1970’s documentary footage showing children at play in Belfast, will be shown at the Gormleys galleries in Belfast and Dublin.

The Vallely family has had an ongoing relationship with Barga over many years with Lorcan’s musician brother Niall marrying in the city during 2007 (article here) and his other brother Cillian Vallely who plays with the Irish band Lunasa releasing an album  featuring a new tune from Cillian on the uillean pipes called ”Road to Barga”. To hear that tune being played outside Aristo’s by Cillian click here

Lorcan Vallely was born in Armagh in 1979 and completed his foundation course in art and design at the Belfast Art College in 2000 before studying Fine Art at Bath School of Art. After successfully completing his BA at Bath he attended the Post Graduate Diploma Fine Art course at Chelsea College of Art, London in 2004.

[Click here for slideshow]

He then spent a year working full time in Oxford as a member of the artist-run Magdalen Road Studios. He has exhibited in London, Bath, Italy, throughout Ireland and has been living and working in Belfast since early 2006. He is currently a member of the Belfast Print Workshop.

“For the past few of years I’ve mainly been working in charcoal on canvas but also utilize oil, acrylic and print, often combining these media. I really like the hands-on approach to the medium of charcoal, the ability to build up layers of tone with real depth and find that working like this on canvas, as opposed to paper, leaves much more scope for this approach; it’s a much more resilient surface. This also allows for the addition of a splash of colour that can combine with the tonal charcoal with very effective results. – Lorcan Vallely

Lorcan’s site can be seen here

Click on the link below to hear a short interview with Lorcan in his studio in Barga Vecchia recorded this afternoon
lorcan_vallely_drawings_barga_1july2009