New for 2008 is the new ' Café Gallery Ruairí O Neill '
I have moved my Clifden Studio/Gallery to a location just off the center of Clifden town and turned it into a Café Studio Gallery. The Café/Gallery is located at 1 Church Hill Street, Clifden, Connemara, Co. Galway, just beside the Alcock and Brown Hotel.
If good Illy Coffee and Homemade Cakes is your thing and you need somewhere to unwind, the Café Gallery Ruairí O Neill is the place to be. The Café Gallery is decorated in Ruairí style!
The baking has been a new and exciting discovery for me. I never baked a cake until two weeks before I opened Café Gallery Ruairí O Neill ( we are definetly not going to eat there!) but then Baking and Cooking is in the blood.
My father was a great cook ( From childhood I can still picture and taste the tomatoes he grilled for breakfast one Christmas day when I was about seven) and my mother is still baking some of the best Fruit Cakes and Bread that you will find anywhere on earth. All my siblings learnt how to bake from a early age, for some reason I just started a few weeks ago!
A big Thank You is due to my lovely lady friends at Design Platform in the Station House Courtyard for sampling the first cakes and giving me their honest opinions and sharing some of their recipes, Sharon, Brigid and Mary, you are the best!
Why open a Café? I have an addiction to coffee and as it was so difficult to get a decent cappuccinno, especially during the winter time here in Clifden, I thought "Why Not open a Café Gallery?" Now customers come in and relax over a cappucinno, sample some of the cakes while they consider many of the new creations at Café Gallery Ruairí O Neill.
During the winter we have an inviting warm fire to keep everyone as comfortable as possible and a soup made by 'Chef' Ruairí to warm the cockels of your heart.
June 11 2008
Continuing with my close relationship with the National Breast Cancer Research Institute of Ireland, I am continuing to raise funds through the sale of The Oisrí Ring.
As with last year I am offering the profits of the first ten Oisrí Rings sold online to NBCRI (www.nbcri.ie for donations and information).
Leaf Earrings
and Banrí Ring
I am continuing to paint and new and exciting works are now available at the new Café Gallery Ruairí O Neill.
I have also some great paintings from Lol Hardiman. Lol paints breath taking seascapes with thinly diluted oils on parchment paper, the obtained translucency has a soothing effect on the viewer.
For myself, painting continues to be the perfect medium to express my emotions and responces to life and living in Connemara. I love the colours and the whole process of painting, It is so relaxing.
The Café Gallery is taking on a different form each week with new colours and images reflecting off its walls.
The work is abstract and the responce has been very positive. At the moment I am working with acrylic on canvas. Later in the year I will do a series in oil. The work comes in its own contemporary frame ready to be hung on your wall.
I have also started a wooden furniture and lighting collection. Again, I am driven in design by the surrounding sea and found objects on Connemara's beaches. Driftwood and railway sleepers from the old Clifden Railway line have been an inspiration in my Seawood Seat ( guaranteed to last two generations!)) and Seawood Floor Light.The designs are simple and sculptural in form with each piece having a unique design for you.
As uploading images to my website is such an arduous process and wastes so much of my time,if you would like to see images of the work and prices right now, just send me an e-mail and I'll forward you on the details. If anyone comes across a website designer than can create a website for non website design engineers (me!), please let me know!
Straczek Pendant
The above photographs were taken by Connor Tilson
Ruairí O'
Neill demonstrates his jewellery skills at the KilkennyShop,
in Dublin during June 2006.
The above photograph was taken by Caoilfhionn Rowan.
