The Urban Environment

·         My Research was based on St. Johns Church and the portrayal of this church in its own environment.  It was interesting to find out that the existing church was built in 1852.  ( the previous church had occupied the site long before this)

·         This Church was witness to the changes in St. Johns Square over the years and I decided to document some of these changes in my mixed media piece Urban Times. 

·         Experimenting with a limited palette of low intensity colours, also looking at texture and creating contrast between light and dark areas in the aim of achieving an aesthetically pleasing piece.

·         Focusing on the achievement of unity in the composition through repetition with the aim of creating mood and atmosphere, in this instance the feeling one gets as they walk through a church/graveyard, i.e. that awareness of a bleak, austere environment shrouded in mystery.  

Urban Times

1693     The quaint old pub in the graveyard came to be some years after a gateway in  

              the newly erected wall surrounding St. Johns churchyard in 1693.

“Johannes Murray, had he been wise, would have kept his money to pay his excise”

1751     The L-shaped houses in St. Johns Square were built. This was Limericks first taste of fashionable urban architecture, consisting of two L-Shaped blocks of houses built in local limestone.  The development cost €630, designed by architect Francis Bandana.   John Pardon, Edmond Sexton started work on the building of New Square, now known as St. Johns Square.

1763     In 1763 the church underwent extensive repairs, but despite these repairs the           .            church was in a sad state.

1852     In 1851 it was decided that the church should be rebuilt and in 1852 the present  

              church was built.

1919-1923  Civil War in Limerick 

1971     corner of Pennywell Street and New Road

1990     Holy Ground pub under structural development

2007     The Unthank Crypt restored

2010/2011     Present day

Some photography that I edited in photoshop