Colourful world of moths and butterflies is brought to life in 'Western Wings'

An unusual new exhibition opens this week in Oliver’s Seafood Bar & Restaurant in Cleggan and runs through September.

Entitled ‘Western Wings’, the exhibition features photographs of a selection of the moths and butterflies that frequent west Connemara. These striking images are the work of local photographer Heather Greer, who is well known in the area for her stunning photographs of Connemara land- and seascapes.

Heather is also passionate about moths, and she believes that these little-known creatures deserve much better than the whack of a rolled-up newspaper.

“You may think of butterflies as bright and colourful, while moths are brown and dull. As this exhibition shows, many moths in fact are highly coloured and beautiful; they deserve to be looked at and admired!”Moths display a wide variety of clever markings and colourings designed to fool predators, including the use of disguise (looking like their foodplants) and markings which spell out danger (such as bright red underwings) or which look like animals’ eyes or faces.

The photographs include fine examples of this fascinating strategy, and the artist has also included information such as food plants, wingspans, and flight seasons, making this exhibition a very real and accessible glimpse into the often unnoticed natural world around us. Children and adults alike will find these images compelling – some beautiful, some mysterious and other-worldly, but all finely and sharply rendered and guaranteeing that the viewer will never look at moths in quite the same way again.

Heather Greer has held solo exhibitions in the Town Hall Theatre during the Volvo Race and in Clifden as part of Arts Week.