Light and landscape

A new art exhibition entitled ‘Light and Landscape’ will be launched at the Solas Gallery, Ballinamore, on Friday next, 26 th October. The paintings by German-born Peter Hinreiner reflects Peter’s feelings for both the local landscape and the meaning of life through a cycle of light. Peter was born in 1960 in Bavaria in the picturesque town Wolfratshausen close to the Alps and was drawing and painting while still at school. Already inspired by the idea of self-sufficient living at a young age, he did an apprenticeship as an organic gardener at the Organic Garden Centre Weidenkam by Lake Starnberg close to Munich, where the biodynamic principles of the anthroposophic Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner were employed. After finishing his apprenticeship Peter started his own landscaping business and later moved to Lower Bavaria where he developed a small organic garden centre. Due to his many interests such as the visual arts, music, dance and his aim to live a life close to nature, Peter’s activities have been very diverse. Among other things he restored a traditional mountain cottage in the Bavarian Alps and worked there during a summer season maintaining the mountain pastures and surveying cattle. The curious "attraction" for local farmers was his organic garden, which he created next to the cottage at a height of 1600 metres. Peter loves to play the drums so he trained in African traditional dance with Koffi Koko from Benin and gave dancing classes and seminars. He has played with several Jazz and Blues bands north and south of Munich. During his first visit to Ireland in 1993 he fell in love with this beautiful country and the Irish people, so in 1999 he renovated a traditional cottage in County Leitrim and started another organic garden. Peter now lives and paints in Leitrim full-time. He draws his inspiration from magical landscapes, the play of colours and light, soulful creatures of nature and the inner worlds. These topics are strongly represented in his paintings. They show enchanted landscapes – sometimes naturalistic and sometimes touched by fantasy – as well as numerous motives of light in all its multi-facetted forms such as "tunnels, spirals, galaxies or births of light", as some of the titles of the paintings indicate. The exhibition will be opened on Friday 26th October at 7.30 pm and continues until the 26th November. It will be opened by Carrick artist, Sandra Vernon known for her pen and ink drawings and her encouragement of other artists. The gallery is open Mon to Sat, 10 am – 6 pm. and for any enquiries please phone Gail or Ben at the Solas Gallery in Ballinamore.