Back to Sligo.

I'm travelling again.  We are about to set off to our "Cottage" in Sligo for another extended weekends work, weather permitting, leaving Dog and Child behind in Dublin.  I will take a few photographs of the cottage this weekend..    ... assuming I remember to do it ;).  Below are two 10 by 8 studies from just up the hill from the cottage over looking three of the loughs visible from the one spot. (Loughs Arrow, Key, Meelagh and skeane)  Three counties are in the view, I am painting in Sligo, looking out over Leitrim and Roscommon as well as part of Sligo itself.  This view is a two minute drive from the cottage.  It is walkable but hill climbing was never really my thing, particularly with an easel paints, boxes of panels and all the other accrutriments Plein air painting requires.

I'm back from my Plein Air trip to Kerry



Painting at Rath Cove, Kerry.

The finished painting

I am now back from Caherdaniel, Co. Kerry.  We stayed at Derrynane Hotel which is right on the shoreline overlooking Kenmare Bay on the Ring of Kerry.

As you can see from the photos we had some marvelous weather, although we did have one morning's rain.  When it rains you cannot see the other side of the bay, in fact it is hard enought to see the other side of the cove! 

We visited a number of areas to paint around the peninsula from Sneem to Kilorglin.  We also took a short break at the upper Lake, Killarney, near ladies view on the way down where I did a little painting to break the journey. 

Kerry is a beautiful place in the sunshine.  When the rain comes in from the Atlantic though it can get very dull and miserable.  Thankfully we had ideal weather for this trip, little wind and lots of sunshine which makes plein air painting much easier.

I am now in the process of planning one or two larger works from my studies...

when it stops raining and I can get into my studio without splashing through water that shouldn't be on the lawn that is... we have heavy rains in Dublin again.

I'm going for a little trip....

We are off to the Derrynane Hotel at Caherdaniel on the ring of Kerry next week.  I am hopeful that the weather may improve from the torrents of rain we had last week, and are forecast for the next week at least.  I want to do some plein air painting while we are there, if the weather is too bad, I may just have to resort to going fishing!, but I'm not sure Christine will be happy about that choice so maybe not. LOL.

I have a pop-up Gazebo to protect me from showers though if it is not too windy, and I can always just go and do the 'ring'* if all else fails.
* This means driving all the way around the very scenic coastline, in and out along every bay and promontary.

I hope to take a few photographs of it along the way.  In the interim I am travelling up to our cottage in Sligo midweek, hopefully to get a little more work done.  Last weekend I managed to sort out the chimneys, but little else other than some spring cleaning and a little grass cutting due to the appearance of rain, rain, and even more rain..... since last weekend we have had rain, rain and yes, even more rain.
A river we were expecting to have a fishing competition on this weekend actually rose by more than ten feet in two days, which meant we couldn't even find the river in the fields, never mind fish it!  Thankfully we had quite dry weather this weekend, but more rain is forecast, but according to the long range forecast Wednesday and Thursday morning are supposed to be dry so I hope to get a bit of work done to the cottage these two days.  Plans, however are likely to change if the weather does.
This is how the cottage looked  before all the clearing I did last year, though the cottage itself hasn't really changed much.  I'll find a photo of it for the next post
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Where did May fly?

Eeek!! May has gone by, without even one post!  Time is flying, but I have been busy, working on a commission, spring cleaning the Dublin garden, tackling the jungle around our cottage in Sligo and don't forget the fishing.  The Mayfly are up on the loughs. ;)

Here is the photo of my work-space and the portrait I painted at the Pop-Up event in my last post.  The event has finished now, after we were asked to extend it for a couple of weeks.
 I am continuing to take a sabattical from painting this week though, We hope to be over at the cottage next weekend doing some more renovation work for a few days.  I was up on the roof yesterday fixing the chimney from the Kitchen Range, I cut a fern root out of the flue that was nearly totally blocking the chimney altogether.  Needless to say, the draught up the chimney has much improved since the blockage has been removed.

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.

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.

My new lino cut.

I have been busy working on my Lino-cut for the 4th International Biennial Ex Libris. All that is left for me to do is cut the wording, Ex Libris & Communism, which is the subject for this Biennale. After much thought and planning, I decided to change my mind, simply because Communism does work in certain situations, notably in the insect world.

I decided to use Bees as my subject, they are more liked than ants and have a recognizable honeycomb.

As communism success stories, bee hives survive through strength and numbers, an ideal communist state where all work for the hive as a whole, from the queen, the workers, the guards and the nurses.

A Greek Eutopia...

The print is a reduction lino-cut in three colours, now I can finish it off and start in on the oils again.

PS. Nice was very nice, I'll post some pics later...

It's a Nice time of the year..

I am heading off for our break in the south of France this week. I am looking forward to it, and I hope the break will give me an impetus to work.
I have had no interest in painting for the last few weeks, due a great deal to missing Dubh. We have her ashes back now, and she was given a nice sunny spot in the garden down by my pond and studio, visible while I work.
I will take a sketch book with me to France, and I may do some work while there but I intend to try and have a relaxing week, soaking up the spring sunshine, and come back ready to get stuck in. See you when I get back.

Springtime.

I have spent the last week catching up on the garden before the spring growth really starts. I also had to remove a large portion of the weed from my pond, the lack of frost this year meant that it hadn't died back over the winter.

Now all that has been done I can think about my invitation to take part in the 4th International Ex-Libris biennale in Serbia this coming November. The print needs to be sent early April as the deadline for receipt is April 30th. The subject for this years Biennale is Communism, so I have one or two ideas I am working on but they are still in the planning stage.

The execution of the lino-cut is relatively easy, planning the artistic side of the work can be difficult due mainly to the small size of the piece. The dimensions must be no more than 15 cm by 7 cm. This limits the amount of detail I can use, so the piece will need to be bold and strong while relying on simplicity to express the meaning behind the artwork.

I have been sidetracked a little by the antics of the Blue Tits nesting in the nestbox outside the window, and the tendency of the male to attack his reflection in every reflective surface in the area. Every time I move one, he finds another to deal with..

Some sad news...

I have not been posting recently, I have been busy looking after Dubh, who passed away last night after a short battle with a very aggressive cancer. This photo was taken only about two or three weeks ago. Dubh had a 2nd operation in November to remove a growth on her stomach, and had dental work done. Sadly in mid-January we found a growth in her mouth, which upon biopsy turned out to be the aggressive cancer which took her from us yesterday.

Dubh travelled everywhere with me, fishing, painting, walking and even driving to the shops and back. She spent hours in my studio when I was painting, she even had her own bed in my studio, happy to be where she could keep an eye on me lest I escape without her. Sadly, I'll be allowed to paint alone from now on... and all my angling friends will miss the cutest looking Ghillie, who always managed to get herself into the photo, even official group photos at the competitions.