I am too busy to paint at the moment. There is an unending amount of little jobs to get done. Angling club duties, the cottage in sligo, and at home, moving an over-full garden shed, building a new base for another secure metal garden shed to store excess items overflowing from the original shed. Plus tools and other items squeezed temporarily into my studio. Plus all the fishing gear that cannot live in my new smaller van.

What happens to time? It jumps up and bites you, there is never enough to keep up with all the little jobs.. ...never mind the big ones!! I am enjoying the physical labour all the same. I was unable to do it for so long it is great to be a ble for it now. Sadly I'm years behind on it all. :D

Time flies...
I am not painting, nor am I making lino-cuts.. Instead I have been busy working around our cottage in sligo. The vegetation grows so fast when it is not cut back regularly. We have placed a caravan beside the cottage so we have somewhere to stay while working on the cottage itself. It has not been worked on for a few years, and it will take a while to make it habitable. It will need new windows and doors to start off with, then I'll need to dryline it and insulate the roof.
All this plus plumbing and wiring....

In the meantime there is the fishing and my painting to do. Sadly the painting is missing out, but the break will do me good as I will be doing a lot of plein air work next month and I will be nice and fresh starting off. I am looking forward to taking part in the plein air festival in Wexford at the end of July. Making up for lost time..

An interesting concept..

I have just signed up for the sketchbook project which seems a very interesting concept. I don't tend to use my sketchbooks enough, preferring to just use paint plein air instead so this will mean I will actually have to do more sketching. This is never a bad thing, although in truth I have been doing more sketches recently during the planning stage while working on lino cuts.
I will try to show a few of my sketches in the blog when my book comes, and I can use it as a training implement for when I travel to new mexico next spring for my residency as I will want to do some sketches along with my plein air work.

I will be travelling to Wexford at the end of July for the plein air festival there over thebank-holiday weekend. The art in the open weekend promises to be a fun event, sadly I wasn't able to make it last year. Meanwhile I'm off back to my studio... I can't spend all day online..

A pleasant walk in the park.

I'm just back from a late evening walk with Dubh (the dog) here in a Dublin city park. I watched a few bats flying overhead, rabbits on the grass, a fox trotting along happily, and two badgers ambling along quite noisily. All this within the city, surrounded by busy roads and housing estates. Sometimes city living offers more chances to see wildlife than living in the countryside. However out fishing in the countryside yesterday, I also saw a Harrier flying across part of the lake, I couldn't be sure if it was a Marsh harrier or a hen harrier but it looked like a marsh harrier in that it seemed to be a dark brown underneath.
It is nice to see uncommon birds and animals occasionally, it makes life interesting and keeps my periferal vision sharp. I can recognise most bird sillouettes instantly, and if I can't it also draws my attention to it in detail, probably an effect of my childhood constantly watching wildlife. This ability to register an image quickly also helps with my art, it allows me to see the characteristic shapes and stance of many things and to capture these salient points quickly without getting lost in details. I can then look at the details at a more leisurely pace, secure in the knowledge that the basic bones are already there in proportion and context.
There is always a danger that we as artists don't see the wood for the trees. Or put too much effort into the detail and forget about the emotion or impact of a subject.