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..

An interesting concept..

I have just signed up for the sketchbook project which seems a very interesting concept. I don't tend to use my sketchbooks enough, preferring to just use paint plein air instead so this will mean I will actually have to do more sketching. This is never a bad thing, although in truth I have been doing more sketches recently during the planning stage while working on lino cuts.
I will try to show a few of my sketches in the blog when my book comes, and I can use it as a training implement for when I travel to new mexico next spring for my residency as I will want to do some sketches along with my plein air work.

I will be travelling to Wexford at the end of July for the plein air festival there over thebank-holiday weekend. The art in the open weekend promises to be a fun event, sadly I wasn't able to make it last year. Meanwhile I'm off back to my studio... I can't spend all day online..

A pleasant walk in the park.

I'm just back from a late evening walk with Dubh (the dog) here in a Dublin city park. I watched a few bats flying overhead, rabbits on the grass, a fox trotting along happily, and two badgers ambling along quite noisily. All this within the city, surrounded by busy roads and housing estates. Sometimes city living offers more chances to see wildlife than living in the countryside. However out fishing in the countryside yesterday, I also saw a Harrier flying across part of the lake, I couldn't be sure if it was a Marsh harrier or a hen harrier but it looked like a marsh harrier in that it seemed to be a dark brown underneath.
It is nice to see uncommon birds and animals occasionally, it makes life interesting and keeps my periferal vision sharp. I can recognise most bird sillouettes instantly, and if I can't it also draws my attention to it in detail, probably an effect of my childhood constantly watching wildlife. This ability to register an image quickly also helps with my art, it allows me to see the characteristic shapes and stance of many things and to capture these salient points quickly without getting lost in details. I can then look at the details at a more leisurely pace, secure in the knowledge that the basic bones are already there in proportion and context.
There is always a danger that we as artists don't see the wood for the trees. Or put too much effort into the detail and forget about the emotion or impact of a subject.

I have entered the Etsy marketplace with my linocut prints.

I have opened a shop at Etsy.com selling some of my linocut prints I have listed three of them at the moment and I'm looking forward to see how they are received as I have not had any for sale up until now. I have kept them quite reasonable and they will be an ideal starter for collectors of contemporary art.
If these go well I may list a few more next month.

Van upgrade, a new toy.

I bought a new van today. Well new to me, it is a 2007 model citroen berlingo. It is quite a bit smaller than my present mitsubishi L300, but I don't need such a big van anyway and the Berlingo will be a lot more economic to run. The van is white in colour, so I have become a "White van man".
When the van is ready for collection (it is getting re-registered and a roadworthiness certificate issued) I won't know myself, it comes with a CD player, electric windows & mirrors and other mod cons, none of which are in my 17 year old Mitsubishi. The only forseeable problem is that I think Dubh (the dog) is going to be a little annoyed at the loss of the middle seat in the three seater L300 when I go fishing with Noel... although she will probably just insist on sitting on him instead.
I have finished working on the trout lino-cut, and now I am ready to impress a few prints but I need to pick up some paper from the art-supply store tomorrow. KM Evans are having a 25% off sale on canvases so I have been holding off going in until the sale-day (tomorrow).

A work in progress, lino-cut proof print

I have cut and proofed my trout design lino cut print. Perseverance pays off, I am almost happy with this now. It needs a little tidying up and some hard edges softened but not all as I want the energy and movement of some of the edges left.

I will now experiment by scratching the paper to see where and what I remove from the block before cutting. At this stage it is like an old woodwork teacher used to say at school.. measure twice and cut once, you can't put it back.

The image is about seven inches by four, the block was originally 8 by 5.