Jim O’Keeffe, Artist, Newcastle, Co Wicklow.

Jim O’Keeffe comes to fine art after a long career in corporate communications, branding, and design. Over the years, working with everything from visual identity to theatre and television design, he has built a deep connection to composition, colour, symbolism, and the language of images.

Jim's art practice rests on two pillars. One side leans into minimalist abstraction: gilded surfaces, careful colour rhythms, and a kind of quiet that asks you to slow down and really look. The other side holds onto traditional iconography, especially the narrative of Byzantine and early Christian images, treating the act of painting as something contemplative, almost devotional.

Instead of keeping these worlds apart, he brings them into conversation: abstraction talks with narrative-making; reduction sits next to symbolism; the clean clarity of modernism stands alongside the ancient weight of tradition. Materials matter here. He uses gilding, natural pigments, and old-school techniques, weaving together the tactile realism of the present with echoes of the past.

Even as his communications background shapes his process -giving it a kind of intention and order - there’s a strong pull toward slowness, presence, and the emotional charge of the materials he uses. Through egg tempera painting and gilding, he wants to create spaces for quiet, places for reflection that touch both today’s visual culture and much older spiritual traditions.

Artist and Art Educator Mags Harnett

Mags Harnett is an accomplished artist and educator who honed her craft through studies at Trinity College Dublin and l’Ecole Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Tours. After a formative period living and working in Paris and Cologne, she returned to Dublin in 2011 to further her professional practice. Her technical excellence was recognized in 2013 when she won first prize for Calligraphy in the RDS National Craft Awards.
Harnett has showcased her work in solo exhibitions at prestigious venues like the National Gallery of Ireland and the Alliance Française. Beyond her studio, she is a dedicated facilitator who conducts workshops and art appreciation courses for the National Gallery and the ETB. Currently, she continues to create and teach from her studio space at the Schoolhouse for Art in Enniskerry.

Speakers author and life coach Donal O’Brien and ceramic artist Yonne Leon

Writer Marian Brennan and Creative Producer and Photographer Marc Diamond.

@ Greystones Library

Join our next event with two new fantastic speakers: writer Ali McGuire and musician Brian Whelan!

Visual Artist Michelle Owens and Sculptor Emma Jane Rushworth

Please join us for our next "Conversation with an Artist" event on February 4th at 4PM on the first floor of the Greystones Library!
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Following up on our successful first event with Mary and Deirdre, we are looking forward to seeing many of you (and hopefully many new faces) for our next session!
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Frances Browner, Local Poet, Author, Teacher
Widely published and broadcasted on RTE's Sunday Miscellany, Living Word and for the Francis McManus award. Highly commended for the Costa Book awards, winner of Dun Laoghaire Local Voices Haiku. Her debut novel "A Bronx Summer" was released this year.
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Angelika K. Bender, Published Author and Abstract Artist
Her large abstract artworks are inspired by the Irish Sea and have been exhibited in several galleries in Wicklow and Dublin. She joined the Arts Committee due to her first-hand experience of starting out as a new artist in Greystones.
She is the author of the successful Fantasy childrens book series "Erkental".

Visual Artist Mary A Kelly and Artist and Poet Deirdre McKernan Crosby