The Gerard Byrne Studio in Ranelagh has launched ‘Pause for Harmony – Art in Lockdown’, Gerard Byrne’s second major solo show of 2020. As the name suggests, the exhibition presents art created by Byrne during the months of lockdown, including over fifty oil paintings and a number of charcoal sketches.

Lockdown has been many things, often characterised by fear, by boredom and by tragedy. But for Byrne, as for many, it also became a period of reflection, a pause from the bustle and pressures of ‘normal life’, something which is reflected in the tranquility of his latest work.

For Byrne, an artist who regularly travels abroad to paint his ‘en plein air’ (outdoor) scenes, lockdown was also a rediscovery of his native city, Dublin. Unable to travel in search of beauty, Byrne was forced to find the beauty directly around him. In doing so, he encountered the beauty of Dublin, a city in lockdown; quiet and calm, gilded in Irish early summer sunshine. Byrne took to his rooftop, earning himself the nickname “the artist on the roof”, and a video feature in the Irish Times. From there he went out into the streets to paint the Georgian architecture for which the city is known.