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Gillian Wright

@gillianwrightartist

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Gillian Wright is an Irish multi-media artist currently living and working in Donegal, Ireland 🇮🇪

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Mackerel flashing beneath the water. Fishing rods suddenly full. Long summer evenings followed by supper together. 🐟🎣🌞

For Saltwater II, artist Gillian Wright presents two works inspired by treasured family summers beside the sea in Donegal. They celebrate the joy and wonder of those days, while reflecting on how deeply memory can connect us to a place.

Originally from Waterford and now living in Donegal, Gillian is a multimedia artist whose practice explores memory, place and lived experience. She has exhibited across Ireland, the UK, USA and France and is represented by The Open Window Gallery in Dublin. 🎨

📅 Saltwater II — Irish Surf Art Exhibition
Opening this Friday, 25 September at 6pm

📍 Kevin Lowery Gallery & Studio, Bundoran
🗓️ Continues until Sunday 11 October

#SaltwaterI#IrishArt #DonegalArt #Bundoran Fish painting

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The @brockmansgin Art open call with @kevinloweryart @kevinlowery.gallery has seen over 70 submissions. We are delighted to reveal the 20 artists that will be displayed at this years Saltwater II exhibition in @kevinlowery.gallery from the 27th of Sep to the 10th of October.

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Wow that was a wonderful flying visit to the beautiful town of Ironbridge. What an inspirational trip to the printmaking exhibition and competition. Well done to all the winners there were so many prizes!
It was so worth the journey to stand in a room absolutely jam packed full of inspiration. If I’m honest I was a little overwhelmed by the standard and variety of work it felt unreal that my humble mags and geese should sit amongst all this brilliant work.
If I come again next year I’d definitely stay for a few days so I could go back after the opening and soak in a little more of the inky magic that is within those walls. Also the town is beautiful and had a warm feeling to it, I’d love to explore it more. Of course the tawny’s welcome made our first evening more special and to see the bridge lit with flickering red light was magical. Recalling the forges that created it, and so under its arches as the tawny’s hooted I thought of Mike and it made me smile.
Thank you @ironbridgefinearts for running this competition it really feels like a celebration of printmaking. I have never been in the company of so many people who love to print. The diversity of methods and styles was breathtaking and I don’t envy the judges having to choose winners. @gillianwrightartist and I were like children opening Christmas presents under the tree. With each new print viewed, new excitement bubbled out of us. With each conversation with fellow printers a reaffirming of why we love to print!
A big thankyou also to @keaneysgiftshop for the framing of these prints #magpies #geese #printing #collagraph

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We ❤️ Gillian Wright⁠
⁠
𝘔é 𝘍é𝘪𝘯⁠
Oil on board⁠
76 cm x 102 cm⁠
⁠_____________________⁠
gillianwrightart.com @gillianwrightartist #artoftheday

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It’s international women’s day and these pieces were to be hanging in Derry as part of our exhibition of work from the flotsam and jetsam project. Just a few short weeks ago I was celebrating my birthday with a trip to the sea counting Canada geese gathered on the shore at strandhill. I was delighted to have just finished out this piece ready for hanging the following week. It felt fitting to have a farewell image completed and ready to go! Little did I know what was in store.
David and I headed away for the night together and before we arrived home the next day our son Seán had dislocated his shoulder at football training, Amelia his girlfriend had collected Lily from school and been involved in an accident (luckily they were all ok) and the exhibition was cancelled! What a 24 hours, we vowed never to go away again and thanked our lucky stars that everyone was ok. It put the loss of the exhibition into perspective for me. The last few months of the project that spanned a year had been difficult and I was looking forward to its conclusion. But this was not the ending I expected. Events continued to unfold and with the loss of my brother in law all else has paled into insignificance. You can spend time planning and working towards something but we never know what is coming next.
So I’m saying a fond farewell to this project. It was wonderful and woeful in equal measures. It pushed me to create some wonderful responses and I learned a lot, about printing and friendship. Now I t’s time to gather my creativity for myself again, sink into what brings me joy and find my path through life.
So this international women’s day I’d like to say thank you to all the ladies in the project. It has been an experience and I have grown as a printmaker and person by taking part. It’s been a privilege to be part of the project.
Swipe to see also my little grand niece a ray of hope carrying my sister’s name in Lily’s arms. Also images of Lily and the ponies she has shared her week with. We have done a lot of equine therapy this week! But I think it’s a time to live and enjoy what we love. To celebrate the things that bring us joy because we can and life is short.

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The result of fabulous prints and simmering tea! A creature of comfort a bear by the sea.
The second bear of this project, one has already made its way to our Canadian friends but this one will stay. It will be part of a piece on emigration and has a story to tell. Just like all good bedtime bears there has to be a story…
This little bear tells of generational loss, of the leaving of one’s homeland in search of a brighter future. This tale touches families all over Ireland whether in the past or present the movement of people is woven into the fabric of this beautiful country. Creating the custom of an American Wake which began in the early 1800s. People bound for America would be mourned and celebrated before they left as it was unlikely they’d be seen again. A final farewell to the community and their families. A sad story of loss and separation.
But our Canadian friends have a different story one of immigration. Their story tells of arrivals, settling, a new beginning and a new home. So it fascinates me that the migration of people has shaped the world. How mingled cultures are and yet how the more displaced the stronger the cultural identity is. The pieces that we bring with us are not just possessions but they are our essence too. Formed in the families and communities we came from and in our natural talents and abilities.
I wonder how different would the world view be if we were all like the geese and fish that migrate. They’ve no need for im or em in their migration, as the whole world is their home. A movement without judgement just following resources for survival. An acceptance of that flow and an expectation of it. Just as we wait for our swallows to return so to do the people in Africa wait for theirs!
Belonging is important to us as humans and perhaps to this little bear too… but that’s a story for another day!

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It has been a crazy first year @letterkennycreativescollective. A massive thank you to everyone for your support, to all our guest speakers and workshop facilitators, and to @regionalculturalcentre & @angrianantheatre for hosting our events. Thank you to all the Poets that read at our Poetry evenings, to @deniseblakedl for curating the evenings and to the very generous @thecounterdeli for hosting us.

We were grateful to be supported in 2025 by @creativeireand & Donegal Couty Council.

Poets: Seamus McDermott, Maureen Curran, Aodan McCardle, Denise Blake, Nick Griffiths, Averil Meehan, Valerie Bryce, Ciaran Cunningham, Winifred McNulty, Eamonn Bonnar & Imelda Maguire.

Guest speakers and facilitators:
@redochretattoo
@ultanpringle
@deborah_stockdale
@helen_hancock_glass
@dean_fee
@daniel.nelis_visual.art
@emmetmacsuibhne_art
@cliodhna_ni_t
@ciarandunlevy
@gillianwrightartist
@valerietaylorwovenbags
@effessartstudio
@iangordonashlemon
@vintagevalerie1
@maggiemarleystudio
@amfinnart
@paulmurrayartist

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It’s been a week of experiments and quiet contemplation. Ironically I’ve spent a lot of the darkest days of the year in the dark! Mid week saw me spend a good part of the day @manorhamiltonprintgroup studio in the dark room pottering away on my own learning new skills printing images both personal and from our Canadian friends. I worked away alone for the first time in this #flotsamandjetsam @postmarkedprints project. But while I was physically alone the beautiful images of other printers family members were good company. As their faces appeared on screens and papers the feeling of connection grew. Shortly I was surrounded by people and stories and as the images sat next to each other so began a conversation of possibilities.
The conversation continued late last night having worked late on my last Christmas orders it was as if my workshop was alive. I could almost hear the voices of my family members from the tempting pile of images waiting patiently for my attention. So I took down the trousers and began to play… swipe to see the evolving work as I moved through stages of discovery. Still alone and in the dark I text images to @imeldapeppard and @gillianwrightartist to see could they shed some light on the progress. Gillian and I had quite a clear idea for this piece and as the elements are added the excitement is building. To see our ideas coming together is wonderful and I think it will be better than we imagined!
I spent a good bit of today in the dark too due to a nasty migraine that left me avoiding light and noise. But as the day began to melt into night I headed out into the fresh air with the dogs to blow the cobwebs away. On returning home the lure of the workshop beckoned me in. So I began shuffling photos again and experimenting first with slits and then with pockets. Gillian had suggested the images appear partially submerged and so I was itching to try it out. The first image is an idea of how we might resolve that idea. But it is not quite complete, lino has been carved this evening to see will it answer a question! So the quiet introspection of deep midwinter has helped shed light on this part of the project.#screenprint #collagraph #cyanotype

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What a lovely day of printing… so much learned and had so much fun while learning. After a week’s break due to the flu it was wonderful to be back in my happy place. @gillianwrightartist and I planned lots of different things for today but both arrived realising we’d left key ingredients for our plans behind. So it was a paired down version of all we’d plotted to do and it worked out just perfectly.
We are working on some trousers/pants for our Canadian partners on the idea of migration and so my flock of geese has gathered for the journey. I couldn’t resist printing them on paper too and will have a happy play with my mini plates again next week. The possibilities with printing are endless and always leave me with a fizzy brain full of new explorations.
So for our geese, fish and people who migrate across the ocean the possibilities are endless too. A small change in the recipe or journey can make for a big change in outcome. A chance discovery of something new and a fresh adventure with every new step.
Working together also changes the results of the journey, trusting each other and then handing over is quite liberating. It evolves outside the physical print and literally takes wings of its own. So we plan to hand over an incomplete piece so that what begins as emigration, journeys, changes and becomes immigration and that’s a story for our Canadian counterparts to tell! #flotsamandjetsam @postmarkedprints

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Back in July we began printing for the #flotsamandjetsam exchange with Canada. As part of the project I purchased some vintage hankies on eBay with the idea of printing images of family on them. Having been reared on the south coast of England beside Portsmouth a busy port I have vivid memories of large ships setting sail and people gathering to wave them away hankies fluttering in hands to dry tears and keep the waving hand visible for longer… A fluttering of farewells.
The image on my hanky is done with a photopolymer plate and features my great grandmother and my grandad. I chose the hanky for the Lily of the valley embroidery it was my grandads favourite flower and has a connection to my youngest daughter. Some of the lovely ladies in the print group also printed family members onto the hankies for me and so the collaboration began. The printed hankies and some blank hankies were posted to Canada for them to respond to with images of their choice with the idea that half of them will say their farewells to Canada and return to Irish shores.
I’m finding the project drawing me to family, maybe it’s my connection with the sea and my upbringing on its shores. But I left those shores at 18 and journeyed from a sea to an ocean. I made my way west and settled in the country of my other grandads family. How full is that circle? My move was in search of a better place to rear my daughter but I think all such moves are ultimately for family. Whether we leave with them or leave them behind they always travel with us. We carry them in tiny talismans in purses, nowadays in images on our phones but most deeply in our hearts and our stories.
So this week we began preparing for the hankies return @imeldapeppard @gillianwrightartist and I created collagraph plates of hanky holding hands and began to print them and test printed some Lino sleeves. Swipe to see some of the inspiration behind this print and its progress. A big thank you to everyone who is taking part in this piece for supporting me with your ideas time and creativity as we work on bringing it to life together. #collaboration @postmarkedprints

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Thrilled to see how @gillianwrightartist is responding to some of my Flotsam & Jetsam prints! Mackerel! @postmarkedprints @manorhamiltonprintgroup #flotsamandjetsam #printmakingstudio #contemporaryprintmaking #womenwhoprint #printmakersofinstagram #canadaireland #irelandcanada #collaborativeprintmaking

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Call and response...

The @postmarkedprints project is all about creating works in collaboration, both with artists here in Ottawa-Gatineau and colleagues in Ireland. Yesterday was a session in the print studio @artottawa in which Canadian Arctic cod were the response to Irish mackerel by @gillianwrightartist.

Arctic cod are a keystone species as they concentrate fat from zooplankton and that dense energy source powers species higher up the foodchain like seals, polar bears, and humans. All now precarious as the Arctic ocean warms and freshens (becomes less salty) and larger but less energy-dense Atlantic cod move north.

Mackerel, too, are shifting polewards, on both sides of the Atlantic, due to climate change.

So many species and systems being re-structured as we heat the planet.

#ArcticArt
#ClimateChangeArt
#CanadianPrintmakers
#IrishPrintmakers

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