Another Lino-cut goes off for display

With the sky opened up to air-traffic again I have been able to send my

ex-libris lino cut print to the Third International Biennial Ex Libris Exhibition "Danube" 2010

at the Historical Archive of Pancevo, in Serbia.

It should have gone last week, but with the grounding of air traffic due to the Icelandic Volcano...no I'm not going to try and say/write the name of it...LOL....there was not point trying to send anything airmail...

The Lino-cut is a three colour print and it is based on the River Danube (the subject this exhibition) depicted by the sinuous blue curves down the center. The overall shape is heavily influenced by the Neolithic ceramic Donii figures. These are women with wide almost pear shaped hips, often depicted pregnant, celebrating the creation of life and thought of as Mother Earth. The river curves follow the line (left hand side) of the traditional womanly curves. These Donii were created in the neolithic era by the peoples living along the Danube Valley.

These curves representing the river are then highlighted with partial spirals, a neolithic form of decoration that is common between Ireland's neolithic culture and that of the Balkans and the Danube valley.

I have allowed the 'solid' grey to print unevenly, it is hand printed rather than with a press, to allow white paper show through. My intent to have the overall effect similar to stone rubbings that we get from our carved stone artifacts here. This ties my own heritage to the heritage of the Danube Valley and helps keep the work more personal.

I like this work for it's simplicity, but it has a simplicity that comes from much planning and work. An almost art-deco feel, but one that enfolds quite deep undertones celebrating the artistic heritage that has survived thousands of years, both along the Danube River and in my own area.

Now that I have this sent, and the airplanes are flying again, I have to try and get organised for our trip to the Cote D'Azure in the south of France.

Spring has arrived...

I haven't done much painting recently. I have been busy building a website for someone and struggling to get the garden in order before we go to Cannes later in the month. I have nearly done most of the clean-up work, and I'm almost finished planting tubs, boxes and baskets. All I need to do now is plant up some beds, lay a path that we can use to go to the pond and my studio, (the ground got rather muddy over this winter, mainly due to the extraordinary heavy rain early on.) and mow the grass again!

I am also trying to get an International Artists festival off the ground in South Dublin, so I have organised the first meeting, attended it and now I am preparing for our second meeting, which I hope will reach a consensus on what exactly we want the festival to encompass regarding different arts and arts practices. The idea in principle recieved a good response with a good number of artists and arts industry people willing to work toward it. It re-inforces the fact that there is a need for something like it in the area. The very fact that so many are of the same view, enough to give of their time and expertise in trying to make it work makes me glad I set the ball rolling. I am very concious not to dominate the discussions though, I found at the last meeting a few kept asking me for details about the proposed festival, which I had to stress was down to the whole group who are going to organise it. For this reason I have asked the group to come with proposals themselves at the next meeting, so we can discuss and decide as a group.
Fingers crossed it will go well, and we can get down to actually organising the funding and sponsorship.......

two paintings for reworking.

Two works ready for re-working again, or I should say ready for the final work. The top piece is 50cm square, the lower 30cm. Both are Connemara studies/ painting plans. I really like the water area of the 1st painting, It is light and fresh. The rest of the piece needs composition changes and cleaning of the paintwork but it is of use as a beginning. There is enough in it that I'm interested in moving forward with the ideas.

Painting #2, may work as a larger piece but I think it is interesting in it's original size as is.
It is much simpler than much of my work, it is influenced by the solid blocks of colour I have been using when painting the fish. It was painted alla-prima, and reworked just in a small area. I am considering using the piece as a foundation for a larger, more complex painting, but using the more patterned block style.

March has almost marched by...Winter is still here.

It's almost the end of March! Spring is not here yet either... ...we have had sleet and snow all day today, and more of the same forecast for the next week. I was to go fishing today, but decided I'm not that stupid and stayed at home instead, only venturing out as far as the post-office and my studio. I am glad to say the heating in my studio is working well...

My paintings are going slowly, but they are getting to where I wish them to go. The drying process is very slow with the conditions we have, the studio door needs to be opened to allow a good airflow for the oxidization of the oils to take place. With all these cold spells air temperatures are not high enough to leave the door open yet. Consequently drying is very slow.
This has a knock-on effect on the work, as reworking and continuing with paintings has to wait until the previous work done is dry. I am working on some of the ideas from our trip to Connemara at the moment. At the moment it seems a long while ago, not less than two weeks, but I have been rather busy since. I am still in the process of trying to organise two or three events, which means I am trying to contact and arrange meetings two or three days a week for one thing or another in between working in the studio.

It's mid March already, St.Patricks Day has gone...

Iam just back from a week in Connemara. Doing a little painting en Plien air, and generally having some rest and recuperation. I have had a few more breathing problems/ asthma attacks and consequently I have not been posting or painting much. The situation is still not fully under control, I am surviving on steroids still but hopefully the consultant is now on top of the problem. Connemara was beautiful, we stayed in the Abbey Glen Castle Hotel in Clifden, see the photos, room, view and castle.

We spent some time in Carna and driving around taking photos and painting plein air all the way around Cashel bay, towards Recess and Glinsk. We drove to Lough Inagh one evening to eat, but the Lodge was not open yet, it was too early in the season, which was a pity as the food is beautiful there. However the food in Ballinahinch Castle was good and excellent in the Abbey Glen, so we did not starve....

Now I'm going to have to get stuck in and do some painting.

PS. the Helicopter is not mine, I drove the car.

Slow work...slow progress

I'm still affected by my breathing problems and work is not a priority at the moment. I did manage to do more work though, this is one of the new pieces, but I'm not 100% happy with it, I'll leave it aside in the meantime and continue working on another one before revisiting it later. I know I need to rework the fish's tail fin to try to make it less solid looking, when I do that it may make a large difference to the work, but I still feel it looks unbalanced and will need more work in the background.

I will update as I continue.

More misery and grumbles......

I'm back coughing and wheezing, meanwhile I'm waiting for an appointment with a Respiratory Consultant again. Consequently there is very little painting being done. I have been suffering with this complaint for over four weeks now and it's not improving. Steroids have given short term relief but not cured the problem which comes back as soon as the dose is reduced and I can't take the steroids long term either.
With all the respiratory problems work is almost impossible, and I find it very frustrating, both on the health side and from a work perspective. The bottom line is that I am feeling lousy, unwell and frustrated at the same time. The up side is that I am feeling too unwell to pay much attention to my frustration.....

.........and if I jump up and down I just rattle from all the pills....LOL.

A plein air Study

I did a little study of a Hill-farm near the upper Liffey in Wicklow today.

There is a small touch of spring appearing in the air... with the couple of days of (relatively) fine weather I decided to do a little outdoor work. The painting was completed within an hour, it is not that warm yet, so speed was essential before frost-bite set in.. LOL.
I like the perspective in the piece though.

Starting work again at last....

I have been into the studio and made a start on another painting. I did not manage to get a lot of work done, but I feel better for starting. Although I am back on more steroids I still have a bit of a wheeze and remnants of the cough. My energy levels are quite high, but my fitness levels aren't, so I start something and realize halfway through I can't carry on.
I have planned out and laid the base coats on the painting, and left them to dry out. At the moment the background layer is just a strong dark deep red, which will more or less dissapear as the work progresses. My next step is to start adding details into the base painting of the sea-bream so I can be fairly set in the colouring and style of this aspect before I work on the peacock feathers and the background. I will take a photo of this first stage before I start, and another at the end of my next session. I am not sure if I will post them as works-in-progress though, I may post the full series with the finished piece in one post, or I may not post them at all. I think it will depend on how the work progresses, and how happy I am with the way it has gone.
Working on and through ideas, does not always allow the process to be visible, as they can become very confused and cluttered and even worse unresolved. I see the proposed painting in my mind, and at first it seems to gel and work, but when it becomes a physical object that can be analysed and studied it often shows weaknesses not apparent in the planning -- a bit like a dream not reflecting the reality.

I am hoping to start the work using previous studies and images rather than the actual still-life subject (another sea-bream) due to the short bursts I will be working in. With so little fitness short spells of work are going to be called for and I will end up using a lot of fish during work on one piece if I don't. I will save the fish in the freezer until I start working with the peacock feathers. I will need to see the way one of the feathers lays across the fish, as I intend to have one doing that in the painting -- but this is subject to change.

I still haven't been into the studio. My breathing is quite bad at the moment and I am not physically able to get stuck in. Mentally, I'm raring to go, but unfortunately the body isn't willing.
I hope to be able to work soon though, I think when I do start work I'll produce well. I may need to tidy the studio first, just to start with a clean slate and lots of working space. In the interim I will see the Doctor again this afternoon and hopefully they can do something for me.
You really miss your health and fitness when you don't have it any more, and it's surprisingly easy not to pay attention to these things when you are healthy. At the moment I feel like an old crock. Mentally I'm still in my youth.... sadly the physical facts are not so delusional LOL.