Falcarragh gardens feature in online exhibition starting today

A new and free online exhibition highlighting the work of a Falcarragh family's horticultural endeavours is available from today, Sunday.

English artist and photographer, Robin Oliver has journeyed across the United Kingdom and Ireland, recording people and places, focused upon the theme of connection to the land and all aspects of farming and diversification.

The Cumberland-born artist has focused his camera, paintbrush, pencil, or pen, recording people and their significant places for his three year Art of Farming Endeavour (August 2019-2022).

County Donegal, much loved by Robin, is showcased via his online website gallery, www.robinoliverartist.co.uk

His present work is an exhibition of images and writing about Seamus O'Donnell and his family endeavours at Cluain dTor outside Falcarragh.  

The Art of Farming for Nature at Ballyconnell, Falcarragh, is Robin's Spring and Early Summer Exhibition showcasing the vision of one very patient man and his seaside windswept farmland meadows here, Seamus O'Donnell takes the long view.

"When you're walking in the woods and face a divergence in the path, you have to choose which way to go. There doesn't have to be a physical split. It can also be a philosophical division.

"At Cluain na dTor, new and old paths meander, offering a romantic view in daylight or under sweeping clouds or the Northern Lights.

"The exhibition images demonstrate how, at Cluain na dTor, the foliage of flowers, leaves, and branches provide light and shade, shelter and canopy, and create architectural ornamentation.

"Plants, left to their own devices, are colonisers, and in any place or direction you look, Cluain na dTor provides a home to them all," says Mr Oliver.

He adds that the passage of time enhances buildings, structures and once barren peat landscape, now beautifully verdant invigorated woodland acres.

"Here is a place that enriches people's lives and that of nature where love, wisdom, endeavour, endurance and the divergence of paths can lead you anywhere. County Donegal and its people will call you back."

Robin's Exhibition focused on Cluain na dTor Seaside Nursery & Gardens, F92, Ballyconnell, Falcarragh, F92 H5W8. begins today, Sunday, April 3 and runs through to May 8.