The return of wonder - Art Exhibition by Marijke Jordens & Simon Ratcliffe

Clare Arts Office in conjunction with Clare Museum is delighted to present “The return of wonder” by Marijke Jordens and Simon Ratcliffe.

Marijke Jordens

Marijke Jordens is a Belgian artist and singer living in Ennis. She studied life drawing in the Fine Art Academy in Ghent and studied Archaeology at the University.

Marijke’s work reflects a balance between being and doing, between the intuitive and the craft. In The return of wonder Marijke shows her message from within about the dawn of a new way of being, rooted in the celebration of joy and wonder.

Exhibitions:

• “Trio: Flow, Texture, Light” with Ronan McMahon and Ingrid Lotter, Sweeney Memorial Library, Kilkee – September 2023
• “Let the light come in”, Steele’s Terrace – December 2022, Scarriff Library – June 2024
• Portrait Exhibition, Mountshannon – December 2024
• Barna Art Fair – December 2024
• “Holding it together” – Solo exhibition, Sweeney Memorial Library, Kilkee – February 2025

Simon Ratcliffe

Since attending art school in 1993, Simon has continued to practice painting and drawing while working full-time in education. He moved to County Clare 20 years ago, and from that moment, the Burren has been his constant artistic companion, providing a rich source of inspiration. These abstract and figurative pen and ink drawings were created in response to the surrealism of the landscape – the weathered stone itself becomes an allegory of time and spirituality.

Walking the limestone and noticing the music of nature has been the pleasure of his life. Perhaps it is only there where his soul feels free to meditate on the mysteries of lie and to experience the unity of physical and ethereal perception.

It is on the ancient seabed of Burren that the past and the present embrace.