Hamilton Gallery, Sligo and Spanish Armada Ireland are hosting the first international Spanish Armada inspired visual art exhibition featuring artists from Spain, Norway, the UK and Ireland. Aideen Connolly, Medbh Gillard, Martina Hamilton, Lisa Gingles, Unni Mona Kristoffersen, Xavi Muñoz and Emma Stroude, along with poets Malcolm Hamilton, Winifred McNulty and Seamus Connolly, have been exchanging ideas and creating work reflecting the connections between their countries through the Armada narrative.

March Wreath – In Remembrance Of The Armada At Streedagh, oil on canvas, 30cm x 40cm, 2024

My work in relation to the tragedy surrounding the Spanish Armada wrecks considers the longevity of remembrance through painting. Inspired by a heritage festival event where a wreath is laid at the site of the wrecks, I am creating a new series of works in the tradition of memento mori that reflect the circle of life, the passing of time, the return to nature and the realisation that the loss of life and the horrific events and acts that took place will be forever a part of the shoreline on Streedagh Beach.

April Wreath – In remembrance Of The Armada At Streedagh, oil on canvas 30cm x 40cm, 2024

A wreath is a symbol of loss and remembrance. Considering the lives lost at Streedagh in 1588, each month I make a wreath using the plants and trees found in Sligo and the wildflowers in bloom at that time. I take the wreath to Streedagh beach to the site of the Armada wrecks and launch it into the ocean. I spend time photographing the wreath in the water, its struggle to survive the turbulence and endure the rhythmical surge of the waves and the toll the water and the wind take on its beauty as it makes its way out to sea. I have made paintings of each wreath’s effort to endure the shallows at Streedagh drawing from memory and my photographic source material.

May Wreath – In remembrance Of The Aramad At Streedagh, oil on canvas, 30cm x 40cm 2024

The nature of the act of making each wreath inland and bringing it to the coast has evoked thoughts of being uprooted and brought to an alien place where challenge and adversity lay waiting. Each soldier, sailor, priest or servant on those boats had a previous history, a life in a place they called home. Their ill-fated voyage left them fighting for their lives against the relentless attack of the ocean or the hostility that awaited them on the shore. My abstracted paintings of the wreaths in the water are intended to be a gentle tribute to these people, a reminder of their plight and loss, the short beauty and fierce challenges of their existence and that despite the movement of the tides and the passing of time their presence and the memory of them will persist on Streedagh Beach.

June Wreath – In Remembrance of The Armada at Streedagh, oil on canvas, 40cm x 30cm 2024

July Wreath – In Remembrance Of The Armada At Streedagh, oil on canvas 30cm x 40cm, 2024

See the entire exhibition and purchase works here Tide And Ties at Hamilton Gallery 2024

Find out more about Remembering The Armada Festival here Spanish Armada Ireland