Artist Sarah Duddy and new Assisi GAllery owners in Rossnowlagh Paul and Sarah Keogh with their sons Thomas and Michael.
An office once used as an area headquarters for a sewerage scheme is reopening this weekend as a beautifully converted art gallery.
The little building directly opposite the Franciscan Friary in Rossnowlagh will be called The Assisi Gallery and will be opened on Friday evening at 7pm.
The inaugural exhibition will feature the abstract work titled Imaginarium Aquarium of award-winning artist Sarah Duddy.
The building, which has been empty for some time, was spotted by Londoner Paul Keogh and his Armagh-born artist wife Catherine during a weekend break in Rossnowlagh.
The couple lived in Northern Ireland and Paul was painting and decorating a holiday home in Rossnowlagh for a friend.
Catherine and their boys Thomas, seven, and Michael, five, were with him for the weekend and they had been on the beach.
Paul said: “Catherine said ‘I could get used to it here’. She pointed to the building opposite the friary and added ‘that could be my art gallery and upstairs could be my art studio’.”
Next morning as they came out of Mass they saw a “to let” sign on the building. The rest is already history. They agreed a price with the owner and decided to send their boys to Creevy National School down the road.
Catherine graduated from the University of Ulster and Sarah Duddy worked with her.
Catherine said: “It is going to be a permanent art gallery and an art studio as well.
“I want to help others have exhibitions here, as well as doing my own painting and having an exhibition of my own work.
“We may put in four or five tables and have a little café for all the pilgrims coming here on a cold winter’s day.
“We aim to create a community atmosphere here.”
Upstairs has been converted into a small holiday apartment to let.
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