This Saturday, September 10, Hambly & Hambly Gallery and Cultural Hub are launching their latest solo exhibition with a wonderful afternoon of conviviality where guests will have the opportunity to meet the artist Laurence O’Toole and view his stunning new body of works.

Entitled ‘Escapism and other desires’, the exhibition features a collection of still lifes and Fermanagh-inspired landscapes from one of Ireland’s most important and influential contemporary painters.

Peony and the endless sky, oil on canvas by Laurence OToole.

'Peony and the endless sky,' oil on canvas by Laurence O'Toole.

Laurence is a realist painter in both oil and acrylic, whose work is a melding of figurative and nature with a surrealist approach to convey the message in his works.

A self-taught artist from Ireland, he has had many solo shows in Ireland and abroad, and his work is present in many group shows.

He has won two awards at the Royal Ulster Academy and has shown at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin and Royal Scottish Academy.

The Carlow-based artist’s work has been collected by the Office of Public Works in the Republic, and featured in publications and in collections of banks, film directors, actors, and state institutions.

Laurence OToole, Artist. Photo: John McVitty.

Laurence O'Toole, Artist. Photo: John McVitty.

He has also completed many residencies, including in Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Spain and France, and his work is part of the time capsule programme that has 15,000 pieces of digital art, music and literature that is on board the Peregrine Lander headed to the moon later this year.

His work is currently on touring show in America, and will be closer to home at Hambly and Hambly here in Fermanagh from this weekend, where the new exhibition launches this Saturday from 2pm to 5pm.