Brendan Earley | ‘Chalet’ | 2004 | Marker on paper | 68 x 100cm

Over the past few months has, for many of us, seen the boundaries between home and work become intangible. Artists have always documented what is immediate to them, the places they live and work as well as those of others. In this showcase we are looking back through the Arts Council collection and sharing works made over the past 50 years that explore where we live and where we work.

Here, Brendan Earley, whose work is showcased under the ‘Where we live, where we work’ theme, tells us more about the featured artwork and what it means to have his artwork as part of the Arts Council collection. Explore this and more from the Arts Council collection at https://www.instagram.com/artscouncilireland/

The building for “Chalet” no longer exists. It was demolished shortly after I made the drawing, to make way for a new development on the site in Lough Key Forest Park (Co Roscommon). This particular building dated from the nineteen seventies and seemed to embody the aspirations of the time and evoked early memories of other buildings from my childhood. It had a vague Scandinavian feel with its name written in Celtic text near the frosted glass front door. I think it even had a lonely cheese plant just inside the hall, which you could see through the letter box.

Looking at the drawing now, some fifteen years later I have no feeling of nostalgia for that time or the time the building represented. But the drawing seems to be full of longing nonetheless. Perhaps that has more to do with how we live rather than where we live. Like a window, memory lets you view but does not let you enter.

—Brendan Earley

Since 1962, the Arts Council has been buying art from working artists. The Collection that evolved tells the story of modern and contemporary Irish visual art in a unique and fascinating way. Today the Collection continues to grow and its more than 1,100 paintings, sculptures and other works are on display in public spaces all over Ireland for people to experience and enjoy first hand. You can find out more at: www.artscouncil.emuseum.com