Laois Beekeepers have completed their Heritage through Art grant project which was supported by Creative Ireland Laois. The Beekeepers worked alongside the extremely talented local artist Aileen Donovan to create this beautiful work which has wonderfully enhanced the beekeepers headquarters. Aileen describes the process below.
"This is a project I got involved in through Creative Ireland Heritage through Art Scheme. I was approached by the Laois Beekeepers Association to do a mural in relation to beekeeping from a historical angle. We decided since I love stained glass to explore Harry Clarke's St Gobnait who happens to be the Patron Saint of Beekeepers. As you can see I did my version of St Gobnait entirely in glue. In fact every bit of the painting was done with glue. The original stained glass window is in Ennistymon, Co Clare and when I seen it I thought it looked like it was surrounded by dots so I continued the dots throughout the painting. I incorporated the Beekeepers going about their day, a wildflower meadow and you can see the spire of the Church of St Michaels and All Angels in the background. This was a challenging project as it was initially hard to visualise. I painted a large painting in my studio and Brendan Deevy printed it to scale to fit on the 18ft x 10ft shipping container! Its quite distinctive and I hope everyone likes it now!!".