Pop-up at the Square.

I have had a busy weekend with the Artist's forum Art space Pop-up event in the Square shopping centre.  These are the paintings I decided to show, but the easel, table and accrutiments were moved before we opened.  I will upload some of the more recent photographs later in the week, including views of the gallery space when all the Artists' work was installed.  I will have some of my portrait painting that I am doing as part of the event.  One of the other artists is sitting for me, and the public can come in and watch while I paint her sitting in front of some of her own work.
All the workshops and events were thoroughly enjoyed by many participants, and we found a few new members for the forum too.  The Square management have asked us to extend the event for a while longer due to the success of both the event and the exhibition, and the management and staff of the shopping centre have given us all the assistance we needed apart from the wonderful space free of charge  for the event.  The South Dublin County Council Art's office gave us great support with a grant to cover the cost of insuring the event, invites, posters and opening reception and the Mayor kindly opened the event officially.

South Dublin Artist's Forum.

I have been busy recently, and all next week I will be organising myself for the South Dublin Arts Forum free collaborative arts event in the Square Shopping center, Tallaght.  I will be demonstrating painting on Sunday afternoon as part of the event, and I will have work on exhibition for the weekend.  I will also be available to talk about the works and my work practice.  All in all it may be a hectic weekend.
The arts forum is a group of multi-diciplinary artists who meet up monthly to discuss local issues and how they effect us as artists, along with a platform for us to organise collaborative events such as this and increase the awareness of the arts in South Dublin. 
The forum also benefits us as artists in a way that we can meet others with similar problems aqnd needs to discuss issues that affect us.  Most artists work in isolation, unless in group studios and often we don't get to meet other artists or people working elsewhere in the arts, nor do we have social interaction with our peers.  The forum gives us an opportunity to do this, and combined with it's other benefits make it a very worthwhile body.
The Tallaght Arts centre RuaRed kindly give us the use of a room and tea/coffee making facilities for our monthly meetings, and South Dublin County Council's Arts department also give us much needed support, particularly with the costs of running events like the Pop-up art space.

My new lino cut.

I have been busy working on my Lino-cut for the 4th International Biennial Ex Libris. All that is left for me to do is cut the wording, Ex Libris & Communism, which is the subject for this Biennale. After much thought and planning, I decided to change my mind, simply because Communism does work in certain situations, notably in the insect world.

I decided to use Bees as my subject, they are more liked than ants and have a recognizable honeycomb.

As communism success stories, bee hives survive through strength and numbers, an ideal communist state where all work for the hive as a whole, from the queen, the workers, the guards and the nurses.

A Greek Eutopia...

The print is a reduction lino-cut in three colours, now I can finish it off and start in on the oils again.

PS. Nice was very nice, I'll post some pics later...

It's a Nice time of the year..

I am heading off for our break in the south of France this week. I am looking forward to it, and I hope the break will give me an impetus to work.
I have had no interest in painting for the last few weeks, due a great deal to missing Dubh. We have her ashes back now, and she was given a nice sunny spot in the garden down by my pond and studio, visible while I work.
I will take a sketch book with me to France, and I may do some work while there but I intend to try and have a relaxing week, soaking up the spring sunshine, and come back ready to get stuck in. See you when I get back.

Springtime.

I have spent the last week catching up on the garden before the spring growth really starts. I also had to remove a large portion of the weed from my pond, the lack of frost this year meant that it hadn't died back over the winter.

Now all that has been done I can think about my invitation to take part in the 4th International Ex-Libris biennale in Serbia this coming November. The print needs to be sent early April as the deadline for receipt is April 30th. The subject for this years Biennale is Communism, so I have one or two ideas I am working on but they are still in the planning stage.

The execution of the lino-cut is relatively easy, planning the artistic side of the work can be difficult due mainly to the small size of the piece. The dimensions must be no more than 15 cm by 7 cm. This limits the amount of detail I can use, so the piece will need to be bold and strong while relying on simplicity to express the meaning behind the artwork.

I have been sidetracked a little by the antics of the Blue Tits nesting in the nestbox outside the window, and the tendency of the male to attack his reflection in every reflective surface in the area. Every time I move one, he finds another to deal with..

Some sad news...

I have not been posting recently, I have been busy looking after Dubh, who passed away last night after a short battle with a very aggressive cancer. This photo was taken only about two or three weeks ago. Dubh had a 2nd operation in November to remove a growth on her stomach, and had dental work done. Sadly in mid-January we found a growth in her mouth, which upon biopsy turned out to be the aggressive cancer which took her from us yesterday.

Dubh travelled everywhere with me, fishing, painting, walking and even driving to the shops and back. She spent hours in my studio when I was painting, she even had her own bed in my studio, happy to be where she could keep an eye on me lest I escape without her. Sadly, I'll be allowed to paint alone from now on... and all my angling friends will miss the cutest looking Ghillie, who always managed to get herself into the photo, even official group photos at the competitions.

Buncrana, Co.Donegal..

I am just back from a grey and cloudy Donegal. We stayed in Buncrana for a few days, and travelled around a bit, hoping to see the Northern Lights from Malin Head....
Sadly with the rain and cloud, and fog we were lucky to see the Head itself! Dubh enjoyed the sea air though. I was not feeling too energetic myself, still recovering from a second bout of 'Flu this year. It was touch-and-go whether I would travel or not.
I find I always have my own personal raincloud every time I go to Donegal.. but the scenery is still beautiful and worth the trip.

I was hoping to do some painting while I was up there, but unfortunately I was not well enough, but we will probably go up again later in the spring after our trip to the south of France. I'll take the paints up with me then.

A trip to St. Kevins Tower, Glendalough.

I took a trip to Glendalough yesterday. I took my camera down to take reference photos for my commission. I let Eoin drive me down and back in his car, and while we were there, he

called into the visitor centre to meet another PHD student who works there. I had never been into the interpretive center before, but it was well worth a visit, and they only charge one euro entry, which is for nothing really.

I found the light a little akward though when

walking around. It had a silvery grey look, washing out much of the colour. Allied to that, was the fact that there was a misty look to the more distant hillsides. I gave up trying to get a photo of the church and tower through the trees because the stonework was invisible behind the tree branches, or at least the tree branches were invisible in front of the stone buildings.

Either way, I have decided my painting is going to take quite a lot of planning. I have my canvas and other supplies all lined up ready for action. However it will have to wait until after tomorrow, I am getting some more root-canal work done at the Dentist in the afternoon. This will be followed by a little more travelling to meet up with a friend, and the retrieval of my left behind fishing hat. Yes, the new season is fast approaching.

Happy New Year

This is the finished painting from before Christmas, somehow it was missing from my uploaded images in my previous post. I am thinking about returning to work tomorrow. I have had a very pleasant Christmas and new year, but now it's time to work, I have another commission to start. I had intended starting last week, but the art supply shop was closed over the holidays and I need to buy a canvas for it.

Today however, I think Dubh has the right idea...

it seems like a duvet day to me too.

Wishing all my friends a happy and prosperous new year, spring is around the corner.

Winter feeding.

I have a steady stream of finches to my bird-seed feeder outside the window. Chaffinches, lots of Goldfinches and a regular flock of Redpolls.

Already, only 3 weeks into the "feeding season" (cold winter) I am already feeding a full feeder of bird-seed every day.

In the meantime the tits are happily eating sunflower seeds out the back from another feeder, and the Greenfinches seem to prefer the peanuts to the seed feeder.

At least the Redpolls eat most of the seed that the Goldfinches chuck away looking for the Niger Seed amongst the other varieties.

In the winter we usually get a wide variety of birds to our feeders, but so far this year there are very few other species yet. This is probably due to the mild weather we have had so far, when it gets colder it will force many birds further south and west to our more moderate climate.