Sunday, April 29, 2012

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.

Friday, April 20, 2012

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.