Killyleagh artist Duxy invites public to take A Wee Dander to St Patrick Centre

11 October 2023

KILLYLEAGH artist Darren ‘Duxy’ Leahy is inviting people to go for a dander to the Saint Patrick Centre in Downpatrick.

Duxy’s latest exhibition of paintings — entitled ‘A Wee Dander’ — has opened at the centre and will available for viewing throughout October.

Duxy Leahy was recently with conversation with Chris Scott, who hosts the Down about Down Podcast.

He describes his exhibition as “places I’m going and things I have seen, walks I took part in and places I’ve been”.

The paintings on display portray a number of local scenes, both from the countryside and the seaside.

Visitors will instantly recognise many local places of interest, including Down Cathedral, Saul Parish Church and Struell Wells. They will also notice an unnamed figure out for a stroll in some of the paintings.

Duxy refers to him as the ‘dandering man’. There may well be a likeness to the artist, but he refuses to be drawn on this.

Some time ago it was suggested to Duxy that he should put a figure into the paintings, but he admits that he struggled with figure painting at that time.

“When you are teaching people to do art, and the mindfulness art classes that I do, you tell people to step out of their comfort zone. That is how you learn. I wasn’t doing it myself,” he told Chris.

After a rethink, it was time to overcome that struggle and the ‘dandering man’ appeared on the canvas.

Despite having a number of exhibitions under his belt, Duxy still finds the experience a “little nerve-racking” but also an honour to have paintings hanging in the galleries where a lot of great artists have displayed their works”.

Duxy’s art journey began during his last two years at Down Academy in Downpatrick.

“Trevor Woods was my art teacher, a fantastic teacher,” he recalls. “Art was the only subject I excelled at.”

Duxy attained an A grade with merit for his GCSE art, inspiring him to follow painting as a career. The first painting he sold, for the sum of £10, was at the age of 16 when he was at school.

After a brief attempt at A-Level art, he found life pulling him in a different direction. He did have the occasional request from friends and family to paint and received his first commission for a sketch in 1996. Later he sold his first international work, despite having been criticised by an esteemed artist.

Duxy believes that a little bit of self-doubt is grounding. He has spoken to Chris about this on a number of occasions in previous podcasts. Earlier in his career, he had always dreamt of having an exhibition but he felt that his paintings were not up to standard.

“I thought my paintings weren’t good enough and I wasn’t worth it. There was a time when things in my life had slipped very badly and I had reached my lowest point,” he admitted.

Duxy sought help for his severe depression and anxiety and he managed to change his life around, continuing his journey in a new direction.

In this podcast, Duxy offers some valuable words of wisdom with the listeners: “If you can change one thing in your life, change it. It will lead to other things changing.”

The beauty of our surrounding Co Down countryside is captured perfectly by the brushstrokes of one of her talented sons.

The Down about Down Podcast has now over 14,000 downloads. Within the first twelve hours of the latest edition going live it had been downloaded across the UK, United States, Australia, Ireland and Portugal.

For further information on Duxy’s work go to his Facebook page (My Gallery. Duxy Leahy) - https://www.facebook.com/Duxyartgallery

The latest edition of the Down about Down podcast can be accessed on Spotify and search for Duxy Leahy – Taking a gander at ‘A Wee Dander’.

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