Arts festival hosts exhibition of Eagle's paintings

THE work of a well-known and popular West Cork photographer and artist, who passed away last Christmas, will be on show in Castletownbere next month.

The Beara Arts Festival is presenting an exhibition of landscape paintings by the late John Eagle, who, through his work as an artist, writer and photographer, promoted Beara tirelessly until his untimely passing last December.

John was born and grew up in Oxford, but visited Beara regularly from the age of seven. His mother Dorothy bought a house in Formanes, Eyeries in the 1960s, and John himself made his home in Derrivore, Kilcatherine when he settled in Beara in 1991.

John first made his name as a photographer, producing postcards and calendars of all the lighthouses around the coast of Ireland. His work was the subject of two books, An Eagle’s Eye View of Irish Lighthouses, published in 1999, and Ireland’s Lighthouses: A Photo Essay. He also organised lighthouse tours, attracting visitors from all over the world.

His interest in painting was encouraged by local artists such as his friends Tim Goulding and the late Maurice Henderson. His love of the landscape of Beara is evident, in the paintings of the hills and mountains where he walked his dogs, and those of the sea where he’d fished as a boy.

John travelled extensively, but his heart was always in Beara, so it’s fitting this exhibition is in the one place in the world he considered home.

The exhibition is being presented with special thanks to Martin Eagle, Sue Swansborough, Georgina Goulding and Tim Goulding.

It will be at the Beara Coast Hotel from 3pm on Saturday August 3rd until Sunday August 11th.