J M W Turner @ the National Gallery

Now it's nearly a new year. For 2011, I will make a resolution, I'm resolved to actually getting to the National Gallery in January to view some of the Turner watercolours. We have here in Dublin the largest collection of them, and they only come out in January when the sunlight is weakest. I have missed them for the last couple of years, putting my visit on the long finger as it were. This year I won't.

Looking back on 2010, it was quite a success for me. An International award for my art, a place on the International fly-fishing team for next year and a diagnosis and sucessful treatment for my breathing problems. My painting has been going well and I am now happy with (most of) the work. How could I complain? Just the hiccup of the motoring accident injury, which seems to be almost sorted out and hopefully 2011 will be pain free. I'll wish you all a prosperous new year, and catch up with you in January.

White Christmas...

I am not dreaming of one. At this stage I'm in danger of being snowed in! The snow is over my welly boots in places. I have to shovel snow away from the door so the poor dog can get out... the birds are eating me out of house and home, and it's still snowing heavily. I wasted my time shovelling the driveway this morning.. there is about 3 inches of snow on it again....so much for the 1-2 inches forecast for today.. there will be at least 6 to 8 fallen by the time it stops because there is no sign of a let-up.

I'll wish you all a Merry Christmas, white or otherwise, and I'll see you in the New Year. (If not before)

Sketchbook study...

I sat in the Kitchen with my cup of tea this morning, watching the birds feeding on the bird feeders and amongst the grapevine. There is a good view out through the Patio doors and I decided to give the watercolours a work-out.

This is the result painted on a Montval 300gsm 6X4 postcard.

Watching the starlings was fun. They gather above the food on the patio table unsure as to whether it is safe or not, sometimes for 15 minutes or more until a bird hops onto the table to feed... ...usually a Robin or Blackbird.... then they all pile in.

The Robin is quite tame, while the two Blackcaps, the male illustrated (the female has a brown cap), skulk around hidden away in the vine feeding on our grapes . The Blackcaps and the Blackbirds love the grapes.. our Robins and Tits prefer a mixture of seeds and nuts combined with hanging cake made with a mixture of fat and protiens. I have been feeding the Starlings and others on crumbled up Fruit scones that I made earlier in the week...I added a little too much Bicarbonate of soda into them so they were not very nice, but the birds aren't complaining. I saw a couple of Redwings today, the first of the year, the cold is driving them south earlier than normal. I also had a Bullfinch, Long-tailed Tits, Blue Tits and Great Tits visit the feeders.

Meanwhile as I type this, on the feeders outside the sitting room window we also have House Sparrows, Dunnocks, Greenfinches, Chaffinches along with the usual Blue, Coal and Great tits busily feeding away.

I have won an Award for my ExLibris Lino-cut.

I received the catalogue from the TRECI MEDUNARODNI BIJENALE EX LIBRIS PANCEVO 2010 in the post this afternoon, and lo and behold I am listed as an award winner. One of a number awarded equal 2nd prize. I am delighted, more so as the lino-cut print itself was purposefully unevenly and imperfectly printed, which although intrinsic to the work itself (spoken of earlier this year) would not particularly appeal to all "print makers" who would normally bin imperfect prints. I am not a particularly good print-maker, but as a visual artist the art shows through. I treat the lino blocks as just another painting tool, and like my other painting methods I like marks and imperfections, they are part of my process. I suppose many other artists working in print would have a similar outlook, but I always assume since they would as a rule be more proficient in the art of block printing, they would be much more careful about the actual quality of the ink transfer onto the paper.

I am now winding down for Christmas, but I bought watercolour paper today with the intention of painting a couple of watercolours over the next week or so. It is a long time since I painted in watercolour, so I am going to enjoy the experience.

Well the snow is still with us...

I have not painted at all in the last week although I am glad to say my back is not paining me this week, I'm hopeful that it has healed... I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I help to hang the INEB exhibition in the law library on Saturday, the opening has been postponed for a week though due to the weather conditions. Only half the artists were able to get their work in on Saturday so more paintings will need to be hung over the week so I am not sure how the exhibition will look by the weekend...and the opening next monday evening.

We still have loads of snow, and ice, we were lucky enough to get the car out on Saturday and deliver the paintings to the show but we have extremely icy conditions now and we are unable to drive out of the house.

On the bright side, we are saving petrol! At least someone is enjoying the snow even if it builds up on her legs and ears.....

The dog wants to go out and play constantly, she thinks the snow is the greatest thing since sliced bread. It obviously holds lots of interesting scents......

A good start to Christmas sales.

Happily I sold at the last group show over the weekend, my framing bill has been paid and I'm well into profit. Now I am much more upbeat about the third show opening next week. I seemed to buck the trend at the last show, where sales were well below last year in general, but many artists had work for sale at reduced prices, and I am of the opinion this hurts both the sales and those who have invested in the work previously. I resisted the temptation to do this, even in the depressed market, and more than doubled my last years figures for the same show.
Hopefully my success will continue, giving me a base to work from next year, until the economy turns up.

In the meanwhile we are experiencing extreme cold and heavy snowfalls, two months earlier than usual. According to the forecasts we are going to have it for at least two weeks.... I dunno what happened to global warming it's getting colder!!

Bankrupted by the banks, now we are being shafted again.

I've just been browsing the catalogue of the Auction sale of the Bank of Ireland's art collection tomorrow, the first trache from 3,000 works, expected to sell for 1.2 million euro, just in time to totally screw up the Christmas market/sales for the contemporary artists. After all, how many serious art buyers do you get in a population of 3.5 million?

I have three group exhibitions opening over the next week. Any guesses at how many of the art collectors are going to have some money left?? It seems to be a day for me to be complaining today. Hopefully the first exhibition which opens tomorrow evening will cheer me up. At least I've only none to not sell in this one, just 20 yards away from the Bank's Art Auction...:(
Yes you guessed it, the Banks have screwed us again. The country has been more or less bankrupted by the bankers, all who seem to be laughing all the way to their offshore bank accounts and their multi million euro pensions. The government have finally been caught out in their outright lies to the voters. And finally, for Christmas we are losing our sovereignty, sold out to the IMF to pay for the golden circle's gambling debts. All of which the working people will have to pay back anyway while the rich, and the super rich have run off with their cash elsewhere.

Water is interesting.

I have a fascination with water, be it still, running or other. Water holds mystery. Pools and streams have fascinated me ever since I got my first wetting in a small pond at the age of five. There is a world of seldom seen dramas under the surface, waiting to be discovered in little cameos, appearing like mirages in isolated clarity behind the reflections of normal light. A world of fish and crustaceans, that is also full of other life unknown in the world above.

Mystery is to be found in a small rock-pool, the finger of the incoming tide creeping in toward the pool, seeking to free the mysteries hidden below the reflected blue. This is what makes water so interesting. Each time you look into a pool of water a different mystery can be found, like the water itself, the mystery is fluid.

This has an influence on my work. Again and again I come back to painting water, it's like a child playing in the rock pool, hunting for little crabs, or fishing for minnow with a net in the local park's pond. I am reliving the excitement of childhood while exploring the light and movement on the surface as an adult.

At heart I'm still the five year old fishing in pools and puddles.

Storms ahead..

I left my work into Holles Street for the Art Sale in aid of One in Four in the Department of Justice and Law reform at 51 St. Stephens Green, Dublin on the 25th of November.

The weather is getting stormy, we are due winds of up to 80 miles an hour this evening, just short of Hurricane force.

Thursday, 11 November 2010 11:06
Today
Extremely windy or stormy today with gusts of 100 to 140 km/hr. The most severe winds in exposed parts of Ulster and Connacht. Widespread heavy and thundery showers with the risk of hail. The showers will merge into longer spells of rain in the North. The top temperatures will be between 9 and 12 degrees.

Tonight

Gale force winds will moderate later tonight but it will stay very blustery throughout the night. The showers will continue in the North and West but it will become mainly dry elsewhere. The lowest temperatures will be between 5 and 8 degrees.

I hate high winds :( It's a evening for buttoning down the hatches and huddling around a fire. It will be unsafe to be out in the Van anyway, I'm glad I made the delivery this morning.

Here are photo's of the two small 8 by 8 inch (20cm) canvases I was working on. They have not photographed well, the colour balances are all over the place. The blue shadow areas in the top painting are almost black in the actual work itself.

It must be an effect of the light, or the background behind the works when I photographed them. I tried manipulating the balances on the computer, but they would not sort themselves out between the bluer areas and the dark reds, and forget about worrying about the oranges and yellows in the highlights. It is possibly a result of trying to photograph such small works.

At this stage I have taken 6 seperate photographs of each, trying to get some kind of reasonable colour correction. You can get a rough

idea of what they are like though. They are two more views from Carna, Connemara.

Two variations on a theme, that actually look quite good in the flesh.

An excuse not to start work.....

I'm struggling to paint a few small works. I don't like working small :(
I wish the economy didn't necessitate creating smaller works for the Christmastime market, but needs must. I'd much rather be working larger. In reality, a small work takes as much time and endeavour as a larger one, although the selling price is much less. I find it difficult to get engrossed in a small work, and when painting it there is not enough room to let my brushes really make marks, everything needs to be controlled. It means there are no happy accidents (little cameo areas that please the eye) during the underpainting to assimilate into the painting..

I find these often make a work, well, at least from my perspective, they make it interesting in a different way. I think I may have to do a large painting when I have finished these few. I have put myself under pressure now, having left it so late to do the small pieces, they need to be finished soon so that they can be framed in the next week or two. So I can't spend long on here typing. It's back to the easel and oil paints........