High Summer: GERARD BYRNE STUDIO | RANELAGH, DUBLIN

This season’s works capture the city in summer's full swing. Figurative scenes, sunkissed plein air cityscapes, luminous still lifes, and vibrant coastal impressions, the collection is steeped in the rhythm of a place and its people—where light dances on brick façades, crowds spill onto sidewalks, and the ordinary becomes electric.

Byrne’s signature brushwork—fluid yet deliberate, expressive yet composed—gives shape to the fleeting interplay of light and shadow across Dublin’s parks, streets, and shorelines. His handling of both oil and charcoal is confident and precise, each mark carefully layered to retain the immediacy of direct observation while building richly textured surfaces. Form emerges through contrast: warm hues set against cool shade, solid architecture softened by the fluidity of its natural environment and the dynamism of human forms.

Bold pops of pink, purple and green punctuate quieter passages of soft grey and dusty blue, animating the paintings with palpable energy. Figures dissolve at the edges, shadows stretch and pool, and surfaces shimmer with motion. Even in stillness—an untended café table, a sunlit vase—the spirit of the stroke remains alive.

Byrne’s work balances control and spontaneity, inviting viewers to complete the image, to enter into a shared moment of looking. This approach extends across his figuratives, charcoals, still lifes, urban landscapes, and coastal views, all unified by his ongoing inquiry into color, perception, and atmosphere.

Running throughout is a fascination with transience—the passing shadow, the fleeting clarity of a summer afternoon. What emerges is not simply a view, but a way of seeing: intimate, expansive, and utterly grounded in paint. Here, the familiar becomes formal, and summer, fleeting as ever, finds permanence in pigment.