two black babies...

What is Dubh waiting for? Could it be next months Virtual Exhibition on Facebook? I have just finished the painting I was working on for the show.

Or is She looking at Eoin's new baby (car)? Which has managed to sneek into the photo, while my van is relegated to on-street parking.

I took Eoin out in his car this afternoon, or should I say he took me (He needs a qualified driver with him until he passes his test) Now instead of being Dad's Taxi, I am Eoin's passenger... whether he needs to get from A to B or not, he needs driving practice.

Dubh is not amused. Dog's are not allowed in Eoin's car so she gets left behind, even though she is the same colour and believes it is tailor made for her.

Fishing, Painting, Building and Buying... and Blogging

I have been very busy recently. I've done a little bit of painting, but mainly some more work on the cottage in Sligo. Along with that I have been organising bits and pieces for next month. I have the Interprovincial championships (& Ireland team qualifier) in Killarney this weekend. So I have been tying up a few troutflies.
I hope be going to the opening of the AITO exhibition in Enniscorthy next week, then I travel to Cambridgeshire in England for the International trout fly competition as part of the Irish team.
Because of this my blog has been a little neglected.. sorry. On the other front I have had a couple of sales recently, so I'm a little happier with the costs of all my fishing trips. I bought my son Eoin a car for his birthday this week, it's not new but it is a car I know and it is well looked after with little mileage. I also managed to get a reasonable quote on his first years insurance... well there is no point buying him a car without insuring it for him ;) Students don't have a lot of money to spare.

Where does time go?

I can't believe it's two weeks since I last posted!
All I have managed to do is go up to our cottage in Co. Sligo. The lawn is unmown there.... and will be for a long time.

Although the grass has grown well in our meadow out front there was little water in the stream, until our last night when we had Lightening and thunder storms with very heavy downpours all night.

The following morning the stream was in full flood, and the ground was very wet so we cut our trip short and came home a day early.

I took a trip to Wexford to collect some of my art from the Art in the open exhibition . One of the paintings travelling on to the Public Library in Enniscorthy for a further show of some of the Enniscorthy paintings from the festival, which runs until mid-September.

I am now moving into fishing mode, with a little over a month before I set off for the International fly-fishing competition in England. I have a lot of bits and pieces to organise before then.

Here are the last two studies from the plein air paint-outs as part of the Art in the Open festival. The top painting is a study of an old semi ruined bell tower beside the bridge over the river Slaney in Bunclody. It is oil on panel and twelve inches by ten. I liked the half-hidden tree-house immediately behind the bell-tower. A number of passers-by seemed to be unaware of it nestling in the tree, until it was pointed out to them.

The second work is of what I took to be a Gardeners Cottage beside Newtownbarry house, just over the bridge from Bunclody. I painted this in the afternoon, and when finished took a walk around and down into the sunken garden. The garden is beautiful, and I'll upload some photographs of it later. I didn't have enough time to do a painting there, but I'll probably make another trip to the house again.

The festival is now over. I enjoyed participating and would recommend the festival to anyone thinking of taking part next year, and I'll probably be there again.

Now I'll have to get back to the studio and work on some re-working.

Wexford plein air festival

I am just back from the exhibition opening in Greenacres Gallery in Wexford town.
I enjoyed painting plein air down in the not so sunny south east.
Here are a few of my plein air paintings from this week.



This is me, standing beside an early morning view up the river from Wexford bridge.

A painting of the bridge over the Slaney river in Enniscorthy.

I liked the abstract shape of this view. As can be seen from the palette, the day was quite grey and dull again.

My next painting is of the garden conservatory in the Riverview hotel in Wexford town, and although looking quite bright colour-wise, I was inside painting because of heavy rain outside.

Speaking of the Riverview Hotel, (apart from the fact that they allowed me inside with wet oil-paints on a busy Sunday) I was pleasantly surprised at the level of service and general cheerfullness of the staff there. It is a rare event to find such good old fashioned "family-run" style establishments now. Most hotels and restaurants seem only interested in taking your money, and not that you are having a good experience while there.

The final image is of a small knife painting I did of Poulaphouca reservoir, Blessington Co. Wicklow while painting with Don Maier last week.

Plein air painting...

I have been out painting with Don Maier and his wife Suzie this week. Visiting Sligo on the north-west coast, the sea south of Dublin and spending time in Wicklow. I did a couple of knife paintings and one with brush as a warm-up to the Plein air painting festival in Wexford this weekend.

Don has travelled over from Atlanta, Georgia to take part. Many plein air artists know him from his Plein air artist group online there is also an online group out there for Irish Plein air artists http://pleineire.ning.com/ . These sites also give information for those wishing to mpaint out as part of a group. Now, I'm off to do a little bit of studio rework on some of my plein air studies...

I am in the middle of sorting paintings to hang tomorrow, prior to my Studio Sale in Rathfarnham at the weekend. Today I am clearing out other stuff, and I'll hang the work in the gallery tomorrow. The sale is to help raise some funds towards defraying the costs of representing Ireland on Grafham Water in September.
I will recieve visitors from the US then on Wednesday, prior to the plein air festival in wexford, so I am busy at the moment. I built a new shed to take all the extra bits and peices I can no longer fit in my new van, and some of the rubbish that had found it's way into my studio for storage. Hence the big clearout...

Rambling, rather than working...

I am still very busy with non-art work, but with one week to go to my studio sale (sat 16th @ Village framing in Rathfarnham) I need to get everything ready for moving. I want to pull a few more prints too, just so I have a few lower priced items available. Don't forget offers are accepted for any work up on my website this week... The studio sale is intended to raise some funds towards my International fishing duties as much as to empty some excess work from my studio. Representing the country proves quite expensive due to a serious lack of support from the national sporting bodies as anglers don't have official coaching staff, with a recognised coaching qualification... ... how do you manage to do that! At our level the main areas to coach such as casting techniques and reading water are automatic. A lot of our (well mine anyway) success is due to the un-explainable, much less the un-teachable, a sort of sixth sense, a combination of thinking like a fish and observation, and an ability to spot small almost imperceptible movement below the water and in the wave patterns. Not so much the fish I catch, but seeing how many I am getting to look at my flies but not catching that tells me I need to alter something. Again the something to alter is usually instinct, or if not, then a process of elimination, starting with what I think is the most likely problem. No coach can do the thinking for me.
Rant over.... I have an American Artist and his wife coming to visit later in the month, we will be taking part in Art in the open, in Wexford at the end of the month. This will be a chance for me to do some plein air work, (or should I say push me to do some) before my trip to Starry Night in New Mexico next spring.
..... I do seem to do a lot of travelling for an impoverished artist... ...imagine how much I'd do if I won the Lotto..

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..