Brushstrokes at the Montenotte as it announces new artist in residence

CORK’S Montenotte Hotel has announced its latest artist in residence, contemporary Irish painter, Paul Christopher Flynn.

As part of its long-standing commitment to supporting the arts, The Montenotte Hotel’s artist in residence programme aims to showcase Irish artists and promote their work through a six-month exhibition within the hotel’s lobby.

Now in its sixth year, the scheme is in partnership with The Gallery Kinsale, a local art gallery that represents the best in up-and-coming local and national talent.

Having graduated from Dublin’s National College of Art and Design in the early 1980s Paul Christopher Flynn then walked away from art completely.

He moved to the United States where he worked as a headhunter and did not pick up a paintbrush or a pencil for two decades.

Throughout this time, however, he was always thinking about art and painting.

When he returned to Ireland in 2003, he began painting immediately with 20 years’ worth of ideas jostling for space in his mind.

To present his works in any kind of linear process was impossible and so he made the conscious decision to paint different themes.

Themes, the title given of this retrospective exhibition on show at The Montenotte Hotel, is a selection of his varied styles and images.

At their essence, all of Flynn’s paintings have the aim to be centres of calm in a world that is often just too loud and too busy.

“I intend my paintings to invoke, rather than explain, their subjects,” Paul Christopher Flynn commented, following the announcement of the exhibition.

General manager of The Montenotte Hotel, Frits Potgieter, said he is confident guests will love the exhibition.

“We are thrilled to welcome Paul Christopher Flynn as our next artist in residence and have no doubt that our guests will enjoy his work,” he said. 

“As a hotel with a passion for design and the arts, we are very proud to support Irish artists like Christopher here at The Montenotte and continue to appreciate our partnership with The Gallery Kinsale.”