2022 “Tommy’s House, Timeless Fragments of a Simple Life”

This body of work is very special to my heart. Created during the pandemic times, with no initial plan but my passion for painting, this intimistic subject smoothly led me step by step to the idea of creating my own gallery.
The 8 Cows Gallery was born on the 1st of July 2022, and the show ran for the whole summer. To my own astonishment, the details of Tommy’s house unveiled a huge amount of emotions amongst the visitors. Whether local people or complete strangers, all seemed to relate to the images I captured…we shared many intense moments, smiles, laughs, hugs and tears, through each others stories and memories.
As an artist, I couldn’t have dreamt of a better reward for my work.

Artist statement

This show is a tribute to Tommy and Willy Hodges, 2 brothers who lived together all their life in the house next door, running the small family dairy farm. They were my husband uncles, exceptional characters, loved by everybody in Allihies and the Beara.
Willy died in 2014, Tommy in 2019. They left fond memories in the heart of Allihies people .

When I did the very first painting of this serie I had no intention at all to exhibit. .
It was such an intuitive moment, and a personal , intimate and nostalgic subject..
It was during the first covid lockdown, when everything had turned quiet and slow . I don’t know why that specific picture came in my mind, a photo I took in Tommy’s kitchen 2 years before, when he was still with us. (Number 21 in the exhibition)

I painted it just for the pleasure, and somehow it unveiled in my heart some kind of sweet nostalgia… I went back to Tommy’s house in search for more .

Sometimes you look at things without seeing them, innocuous things that have been there for ages. But if you allow your heart to see them, you suddenly see the uniqueness and the preciousness of them.

“Precious”, for me, is not gold or diamonds….
It’s the beauty of the emotions behind….
The memories that pop up in your mind .
The smile that soften your lips.
The goosebumps that shivers your skin.
Or the tear that tickles your eye.

The details and objects I painted are to me more precious than gold. They are messages of wisdom, awareness, respect, well before the global warning and environment concerns. They also are witnesses of solitude well before the pandemic lockdown.

All these details and object left in Tommy’s house were so precious to my heart that I felt the urge to paint them.
Still lives, still alive, they deserved every single loving stroke of my brushes .

The Collection

Oil Paintings on canvas or on board, framing by Neil Hodges

Watercolours on Arches paper, mounted and framed

Black and white photographs size A4 framed

A selection of limited print editions of the paintings and cards are available