Stained Glass Nearby Lecture Series: The Sacred and the Secular: the Work of George Walsh presented by Finola Finlay

George Walsh is one of Ireland’s finest contemporary stained glass artists, represented in the Gazetteer of Irish Stained Glass by over a hundred windows dating from the 1960s to the present day. George’s father, George Stephen Walsh, apprenticed under Harry Clarke, later moving to Northern Ireland to design for Clokey of Belfast. While there, George apprenticed under his father, simultaneously attending the Belfast College of Art. After working in America, he returned to Ireland to become chief designer for Abbey Stained Glass Studio, before going out on his own in the late 1970s.

In George’s windows the complex glass-leading accommodates an expansive colour palette which reads as bold and primary but in fact ranges over the spectrum with softer hues leavening the strong blues and reds. In his church windows George depicts not just sacred subjects, but elements addressing a sense of place and time and the everyday lives of the congregation. George has collaborated with several architects to design and decorate new churches, including the scheme which he executed for the award-winning Holy Family Church in Belfast.

Finola Finlay, with her husband Robert Harris, writes the arts and culture blog Roaringwater Journal (https://roaringwaterjournal.com/). She studies and writes about stained glass for her own blog and for other publications. She is a contributor to the Gazetteer of Irish Stained Glass.

Register for the event on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/the-sacred-and-the-secular-the-work-of-george-walsh-registration-452967958357

Free for GSOI members, 11.53 for non-members