Missing the Sunshine...

It has been a cold grey day here today. I am already missing the warmth of the south of France.

Here is one of the paintings from the Cote D'Azur, the fort on St. Marguerita's Island in the bay of Cannes. ( It will need a little re-working. )

It helps cheer me up... :)

The rain we have had has obviously brought the river into flood, the Heron has been in my garden pond today, trying to steal my goldfish. I don't mind herons normally, I see lots of them along the rivers when I am fishing, and I enjoy watching them fish themselves.. ...but I do object to them eating my pets!

Dubh is not a particularly good watchdog either, she will chase it off--after you have told her it's there in the garden. Well at least I don't have to Bark myself.............

It looks like we will have showery weather all week, with cloud and temperatures struggling to reach 10 degrees celcius. Summer must be here :(

Cashel Bay, Connemara, Re-worked:

I reworked the painting from
April 2nd's post.

I replaced the lobster pots with nets. These are depicted with some orange and onion netting, glued down and painted on and over.
I also reworked some other areas of the painting, particularly the foreground area which I warmed up to increase the depth of the landscape.

The 3D effect of the scrap netting is interesting in itself. I managed to set the bright colours back with judicous use of paint. while still allowing the colour to come through, while the painterly effect on the plastic bouys still allows them to sit in the foreground while appearing to be three dimensional alongside the netting.

It's that time of year again....

I have sent my van off for it's service and roadworthiness certificate. It has passed again, now it is being serviced. It is always a relief to know it passed the emmissions tests, etc. the van is like an old comfortable shoe, it just about drives itself. It is now 15 years old and I hope to get another decade at least with it. The tailgate is ideal for both fishing and painting, being that you can stand under it when it is open and work/change/paint out of the rain. A bit like an oversized umbrella.
The large back in the van serves as storage for all of my fishing gear, my full-size radial studio easel fits in comfortably....much better that the lighter sketching easels for larger plien air works. Numerous wet canvases can be laid out in the back.. ...in short I'd be lost without it.

I am back from my travels

I am back from the CoteD'Azur in the south of France. We stayed in Cannes, but travelled around quite a bit. Up the coast as far as Monaco, and up into Provence. There were many artworks on display outdoors in Montecarlo.

These were a little bit spoiled by the groundworks in progress for the F1 Grand Prix. We always seem to go to Monaco when these eyesores (wire fencing and Barriers) are in place.

I much preferred the quiet and calm of St Marguerita Island, just off the coast at Cannes. This Island is the site of the Fort in which the 'Man in the Iron Mask' was held prisoner.

Later in the week we took a trip inland and travelled to Grasse, in Provence where we visited the Perfume Museum.

This trip we did not get into any of the museums of art, although I had intended visiting the Renoir museum in Antibes. There is only so much you can do in a week, and there is still much for us to return for another time. I hope to stay and do a little painting around Le Cannet too, where Pierre Bonnard did much of his work.

Now I'm home again, I have much work to do. The grass has been growing extra fast while I was gone...

....I think the dog will nearly get lost in the hay-meadow out in the back garden! and she needs a haircut too, just like the lawn.

Oh well! I should get into the studio about mid-week, I have to take my van for it's annual Roadworthiness test on Tuesday. I am assuming it will pass.. and it is getting a service too.

It is a pity the weather has cooled down again here though. I enjoyed the Sun and the heat in France last week,

Another Lino-cut goes off for display

With the sky opened up to air-traffic again I have been able to send my

ex-libris lino cut print to the Third International Biennial Ex Libris Exhibition "Danube" 2010

at the Historical Archive of Pancevo, in Serbia.

It should have gone last week, but with the grounding of air traffic due to the Icelandic Volcano...no I'm not going to try and say/write the name of it...LOL....there was not point trying to send anything airmail...

The Lino-cut is a three colour print and it is based on the River Danube (the subject this exhibition) depicted by the sinuous blue curves down the center. The overall shape is heavily influenced by the Neolithic ceramic Donii figures. These are women with wide almost pear shaped hips, often depicted pregnant, celebrating the creation of life and thought of as Mother Earth. The river curves follow the line (left hand side) of the traditional womanly curves. These Donii were created in the neolithic era by the peoples living along the Danube Valley.

These curves representing the river are then highlighted with partial spirals, a neolithic form of decoration that is common between Ireland's neolithic culture and that of the Balkans and the Danube valley.

I have allowed the 'solid' grey to print unevenly, it is hand printed rather than with a press, to allow white paper show through. My intent to have the overall effect similar to stone rubbings that we get from our carved stone artifacts here. This ties my own heritage to the heritage of the Danube Valley and helps keep the work more personal.

I like this work for it's simplicity, but it has a simplicity that comes from much planning and work. An almost art-deco feel, but one that enfolds quite deep undertones celebrating the artistic heritage that has survived thousands of years, both along the Danube River and in my own area.

Now that I have this sent, and the airplanes are flying again, I have to try and get organised for our trip to the Cote D'Azure in the south of France.

Spring has arrived...

I haven't done much painting recently. I have been busy building a website for someone and struggling to get the garden in order before we go to Cannes later in the month. I have nearly done most of the clean-up work, and I'm almost finished planting tubs, boxes and baskets. All I need to do now is plant up some beds, lay a path that we can use to go to the pond and my studio, (the ground got rather muddy over this winter, mainly due to the extraordinary heavy rain early on.) and mow the grass again!

I am also trying to get an International Artists festival off the ground in South Dublin, so I have organised the first meeting, attended it and now I am preparing for our second meeting, which I hope will reach a consensus on what exactly we want the festival to encompass regarding different arts and arts practices. The idea in principle recieved a good response with a good number of artists and arts industry people willing to work toward it. It re-inforces the fact that there is a need for something like it in the area. The very fact that so many are of the same view, enough to give of their time and expertise in trying to make it work makes me glad I set the ball rolling. I am very concious not to dominate the discussions though, I found at the last meeting a few kept asking me for details about the proposed festival, which I had to stress was down to the whole group who are going to organise it. For this reason I have asked the group to come with proposals themselves at the next meeting, so we can discuss and decide as a group.
Fingers crossed it will go well, and we can get down to actually organising the funding and sponsorship.......

two paintings for reworking.

Two works ready for re-working again, or I should say ready for the final work. The top piece is 50cm square, the lower 30cm. Both are Connemara studies/ painting plans. I really like the water area of the 1st painting, It is light and fresh. The rest of the piece needs composition changes and cleaning of the paintwork but it is of use as a beginning. There is enough in it that I'm interested in moving forward with the ideas.

Painting #2, may work as a larger piece but I think it is interesting in it's original size as is.
It is much simpler than much of my work, it is influenced by the solid blocks of colour I have been using when painting the fish. It was painted alla-prima, and reworked just in a small area. I am considering using the piece as a foundation for a larger, more complex painting, but using the more patterned block style.

March has almost marched by...Winter is still here.

It's almost the end of March! Spring is not here yet either... ...we have had sleet and snow all day today, and more of the same forecast for the next week. I was to go fishing today, but decided I'm not that stupid and stayed at home instead, only venturing out as far as the post-office and my studio. I am glad to say the heating in my studio is working well...

My paintings are going slowly, but they are getting to where I wish them to go. The drying process is very slow with the conditions we have, the studio door needs to be opened to allow a good airflow for the oxidization of the oils to take place. With all these cold spells air temperatures are not high enough to leave the door open yet. Consequently drying is very slow.
This has a knock-on effect on the work, as reworking and continuing with paintings has to wait until the previous work done is dry. I am working on some of the ideas from our trip to Connemara at the moment. At the moment it seems a long while ago, not less than two weeks, but I have been rather busy since. I am still in the process of trying to organise two or three events, which means I am trying to contact and arrange meetings two or three days a week for one thing or another in between working in the studio.

It's mid March already, St.Patricks Day has gone...

Iam just back from a week in Connemara. Doing a little painting en Plien air, and generally having some rest and recuperation. I have had a few more breathing problems/ asthma attacks and consequently I have not been posting or painting much. The situation is still not fully under control, I am surviving on steroids still but hopefully the consultant is now on top of the problem. Connemara was beautiful, we stayed in the Abbey Glen Castle Hotel in Clifden, see the photos, room, view and castle.

We spent some time in Carna and driving around taking photos and painting plein air all the way around Cashel bay, towards Recess and Glinsk. We drove to Lough Inagh one evening to eat, but the Lodge was not open yet, it was too early in the season, which was a pity as the food is beautiful there. However the food in Ballinahinch Castle was good and excellent in the Abbey Glen, so we did not starve....

Now I'm going to have to get stuck in and do some painting.

PS. the Helicopter is not mine, I drove the car.

Slow work...slow progress

I'm still affected by my breathing problems and work is not a priority at the moment. I did manage to do more work though, this is one of the new pieces, but I'm not 100% happy with it, I'll leave it aside in the meantime and continue working on another one before revisiting it later. I know I need to rework the fish's tail fin to try to make it less solid looking, when I do that it may make a large difference to the work, but I still feel it looks unbalanced and will need more work in the background.

I will update as I continue.