Turner at the National Gallery

I visited the Joseph W.M. Turner exhibition in the National Gallery. Luckily I had taken my new reading glasses so I could examine the works.. Needing reading glasses still feels wierd, I have had them less than a week and I'm still coming to terms with needing to put them on while reading or looking at things closely. I have already started hanging them halfway down my nose and looking over the top of them and reading when looking downwards. I'm like an old fogey :D

Meanwhile back at my studio, it is in dire need of a spring clean... I nearly need to play hop-scotch in between the boxes bags and other bits over the floor going from one end to the other. I need to re-stack some paintings too. I am in a new broom mood though, I am going to take some of the works and dispose of them to reduce clutter. I am also considering a studio sale to sell off a number of others, I really don't have the space to store all I have, and many are too old to exhibit in a Gallery. I may hire somewhere to have a sale early in the spring, and sell off a few before updating my website as a lot of the works on it will be included in the clearout. More on this later.

My new cards...

I recieved my new business cards and some postcards today. They are double-sided glossy cards from vistaprint, and were due in December but they got lost somewhere in the ether.. Vistaprint had no problem resending them to me though, which is nice customer service. I'm not sure if the glossy double-side business cards will be any more effective than my last ones but they do look nice.

The print job on the back side is a little dark but the quality of the cards is excellent for the price.
The colour balance on the postcards and the front of the business cards is perfect.

Enought pre-varicating though, I must get back to finishing off an exhibition proposal... that is after all why I switched the computer on..

January can get very busy, particularly if you miss the first half through laziness.. ;)

Tests, and testing a new method in the near future..

I have booked an appointment with an optician for this afternoon. ( After a lot of prevarication.) At this stage I nearly need to get arm extensions to read fine print....

... I guess I need to sort out my eyesight before the fishing season. I need to be able to see the flies to tie on the cast. :D
It may help my reading too, but these days much of that is done on the laptop, which is at a distance that is comfortable to read. I seem to be having never-ending tests for this and that so far this year. Check-ups for this, tests for that, it's time you had this checked etc.. old age is catching up with me :D

I fully intended to start work on a new lino cut this morning. But again I am prevaricating and having booked the eye test in Tallaght while I am there for the afternoon anyway for other tests it just doesn't seem worth while getting started on something that I'll have to leave. I am still deciding what I want the lino-cut to be. I have one or two ideas, but I need to be sure that what I do is suitable on the scale I am going to work, which is quite small. I am doing this by creating small simple paintings in flat colours. These then will be pinned up and left for a few days, until I decide which are more interesting and if they can be improved or not.
When I paint, I can rework the pieces. When I cut into a sheet of lino, that is it. No reworks available. I intend to keep a record of the process here, as it will also help me to clarify the difference in the work practices involved in this media for myself. While I have comfortably worked in lino-cut printing with one colour, and in a four colour work using seperate blocks, this is the first time I will use the reduction method.

The reduction method was much used by Picasso can be used to produce multi colour prints from one block, making the lining up process much easier. Each colour is printed in turn on the entire edition of the print before more of the block is cut away before printing the next colour. This is repeated until the there is very little left of the original block. This method has its pitfalls and needs planning but is an exciting way of making colour prints. The main disadvantage is that you have to print the complete run of the prints as you work. I will keep this project to a run of about 12 prints, If it works well, I may invest in a printing press rather than printing by hand as I currently do.

11 days in to the year already...

It's nearly time I got back into the studio. It has been cold, damp and dark for the last while and I just haven't bothered to go into the studio at all. I went into the studio for a while yesterday, put the heating on and looked around at the tidying needing doing, picked up my watercolour gear, switched off the heating and came inside again. I did do a couple of small watercolour paintings in the house, just to get my hand in while enjoying the warmth and comfort. I don't know if I'm really ready to go back to work yet, I have the itch to paint but not the energy. I think I'm suffering from lack of sunlight.

I spent today shopping and visiting... anything other than work... even the dog was in danger of getting a walk, but time caught up on me so now I am typing with herself playing the look at me game. ...I'm here play with me....

....Ahh well there are worse things a body could be doing....

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!!