2nd Biennial Ex Libris - Lighthouse

The 2nd Biennal Ex Libris opened in Gallerie Archive, Nemanjina 7, Pancevo, Serbia last night. I have a couple of linocuts showing in it. I would have liked to get over for the exhibition, but I couldn't really justify it at the moment with all the travelling I have been doing. I will be in Malta next month too.

I am looking forward to the trip, and I have arranged to meet up with an Artist friend, Francis Gallea while I am there. In the meantime it's back to work for me, paintings to paint (and finish) before I go....

Irish landscape paintings

I am still working away in the studio. I am hoping to finish the commissions next week which will give me more time to start on some landscapes. I am determined to paint a few irish landscapes this year, and hopefully I can build up enough to organise a show. The few I do manage to paint tend to sell in the meantime.

It is surprising how hard it can be to do something that simple!!!
Oh well, c'est la vie.

Nearly the end of another month...

I am busy painting away, trying to get some commissions finished . Hopefully when they are I will get one or two more in before Christmas.
At the moment I am finding it difficult to get down to work, the light is constantly changing. Bright low level sunshine coming in the window one minute. Dark clouds and rain the next.
It makes it difficult to keep the colours consistent.
I find myself stopping for a cup of tea...(I'm cutting down the coffee) regularly, and the fish are getting too fat...they look for food every time I open up the studio, I have them trained to come looking for food when I am starting work.
Oh well, back to the palette and brushes....

Work and Play, but someones got to do it.

I got this 6 lb 14 oz beauty on the final day of the season on lough sheelin.
It took a silver invicta on the point.
I moved one other fish for the day but it just followed the flies without taking. Later I increased the fly size to try to induce a take, and this fish followed the flies again. This time I stopped the retrieve and waited for a few seconds, then lifted the rod. Thankfully he had the fly in his mouth at the time. :)

Due to the ending of the fishing season, and a trip to London I have not been painting since our trip to Carcassonne. I have two commissions to get organised, started and finished in the next 5 or 6 weeks so I am going to be busy.

A trip to the south of France, but no painting.

I am just back from the South of France, Carcasonne and the Lanquedoc area. Warm sunshine, and occaissional showers but a nice change from the miserable weather over here.





We had a great time walking around Carcassone old city and along the river Aude.


















I spent a lot of time watching the fish in the river and the Gheckos in the walls.

We took a short boat trip down the Canal de Midi too.

Sadly we only had three days, but we enjoyed every minute of our stay.
Incedently we stayed at The Royal Hotel
22 Boulevard Jean Jaurès CARCASSONNE 11000, which at only 45 euro per night for the two of us was excellent value for spotlessly clean rooms with albeit small ensuite, all mod cons, phone and TV.
The staff were very pleasant too.

We did not manage to get to the Art gallery which was just sround the corner.... ...we were too busy enjoying the sunshine,..... but next time...













I did not take a sketch book or similar as I knew I would not have time to paint while we were there, but in a way I'm sorry I didn't because I could have done a couple of quick watercolours while we sat down by the river and outside the old City.

Autumn is arriving...

It's the end of the month already. The lack of posts on my blog gives testament to the fact I have been busy painting. The work has gone quite well too.
I will try to get more posting done over the next few months, but in reality I have not had a lot of interesting news recently. Lets face it, who wants to hear that I have worked this week, last week, next week....etc. I need angst or something interesting to write about.
....Now I could start on about the weather again.......autumn has arrived and the leaves are starting to turn already, it will be soon time to start painting still-life for the winter.

I have been struggling to resolve a painting all afternoon, it is now evening and I am still trying.
I have put too much work into it to bin the canvas....otherwise it might have gone out the window by now...lol.
I know what I want to do with it but as I change one area another needs redoing....it could be a long night. :(

I can't believe it is almost a month since I've posted!
I have been busy painting. Mostly paintings of my pond, but a little bit figurative work too.
The work has been going well, obviously, that is why I have been so lax in my blogging.....I've been too busy painting to blog.

I will try to upload a few images later in the week.

another update on the plien air painting

It's still raining! I don't see myself getting much plien air painting done while the weather is like this. I am hoping the weather will get more summer like this month. It is a little frustrating not being able to paint outdoors all summer....it's enough to make you want to emigrate to somewhere dry...

Just a small update..

I am still working on more pond paintings, with the humid thundery weather of the last few days the oil paint has been slow to dry. It still surprises me at how dependent on the weather conditions drying time can be even while using drying mediums. I still need to do more work in the studio too, I have not finished my re-organising yet.
I will be doing some plein air landscapes shortly, at least if the weather is amenable I will. I am hoping to get a few days here and there around the country so I have some varied Irish landscapes to hopefully organise a show in the US in a while. I haven't had a US show in a couple of years, but at the same time I have not really had that many Irish landscapes "in stock" in a few years to organise a show featuring landscapes of Ireland.
I have been meaning to get enough together for quite a while...the world is paved with good intentions....and I just haven't been in the mindset to do it.

I have set up a page on Facebook this week, mainly to keep in contact with family members abroad, but feel free to look me up...:)