Offaly library to host local man's solo exhibition for month of September

UNDER Changing Skies, is a solo art exhibition in Birr Library, featuring the work of Birr native, John Kennedy, which is starting Tuesday September 1st and running for the month.

John is a passionate studio painter, plein air artist and photographer. He only began painting in 2018 but since retiring from the ‘day job’ in 2022, John has devoted all of his time to developing his craft.

On the back of two successful solo exhibitions in 2025, at Mountshannon Arts Festival and Galway City Library, John has developed a new body of work for this exhibition, his first solo exhibition in his home town of Birr. John is a member of the highly successful and influential collective ‘Triptych’ along with fellow artists Janet Buell and Gabrielle Murphy.

Under Changing Skies brings us a selection of John's landscape oil paintings and more abstract landscape photography. The work is inspired by years of exploration in the boggy uplands of the Slieve Bloom mountains and the rugged west of Ireland landscapes that John now calls home. In this exhibition John seeks to bring us on a journey through his world and presents us with a series of real and imagined scenes, designed to spark our own imagination and curiosity.

“I use paint and light to show the beauty and fragility of the natural world and reflect our influence on nature, both positive and negative, as we exploit our surroundings for food, shelter and recreation.”

John would like to thank all the staff at Birr Library for their help and support.

The exhibition runs daily, except Sundays and Mondays, from September 1st to 30th inclusive at Birr Library, Wilmer Road, Birr, during normal library opening hours. There will be an informal ‘meet the artist’ event at the library between 11am and 1pm on Saturday September 5th where everybody is invited to come along and meet John, discuss the work on show or chat about John's artistic practice, inspirations and passions.