Category Archives: Ireland

What a week

And I just mean in my studio!

I have been reworking some old canvases and completely repainting some too

These 2 above are each 80cm sq


Here they are with another one the same size and a 65cm one on the end


Here’s a bigger reworked piece

120cm plus it’s frame also painted over



Here’s a fuller view of my favourites (today anyway) – with a sort of invasion of pink


This one and the last one below are a bit odd, and maybe not totally successful. But they were an important challenge for me in terms of structure, form and process. Each 80 cm plus frame

residency at Stiwdio Maelor in Corris 


A great 3 weeks at Stiwdio Maelor

If you are interested in having some time there yourself for your art (including writing) you can email for an application form to stiwdiomaelor@gmail.com 

The 5 paintings in the top image are all also available through the same email. Funds from any sale of donated works goes both towards the ongoing costs of the residency programme and helps to fund the artist’s next residency!

The other image is of a 65cm painting on canvas that I completed on the residency which is on its way to @greenfusegallery  in Westport, County Mayo, Ireland for their next show opening mid November

Cross currents

80cm sq

Was pondering on Yves Klein(though this isn’t ‘his’ blue)

Was seeing the green blot on Degas’s monotype in the New York MOMA show which seems to be seared on my retina

Was messing about with a ‘paint over’ of an old canvas

Was pondering more on how Franz Kline had the confidence to make such enormous sweeping marks

And then this morning there was a debate on Instagram about whether we should disregard other artists’ work for fear of replicating – or ‘chew them up’ and spit them out

I’m all for the chewing idea

serendipitous morning

Made both of these this morning

Top one is called “So beautiful, so what”

120cm sq

Bottom one is called “OnceI was the ocean floor, now I am a mountain range”

80cm sq

I’ve been listening to Paul Simon lately!

Both available through the Doorway Gallery in Dublin soon

http://www.thedoorwaygallery.com

Landmarks series

I have just finished these 3

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On the ‘drying wall’ in my studio
The stark light patches are both disrupting and essential ingredients in my studio life! I have an ambiguous love affair with skylights

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Landmark 1 / the path
120 x 80cm

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Details from Landmark 1/ the path

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Landmark 2 / shadows
60cm sq

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Details from Landmark 2/ shadows

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Landmark 3 / lightshaft
80cm sq

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Details from Landmark 3 / lightshaft

Notes:
1.In November 2014 I visited Ceide Fields – a neolithic site in North Mayo where they have discovered 52 miles of stone boundary walls from a farming settlement over 5000 years old. 
2. This year I am lucky enough to be heading to San Francisco and New York to visit some major art galleries exibiting the works of the American Abstract Expressionists and I am particularly looking forward to seeing some of Richard Diebenkorn’s paintings in ‘the flesh’

I have come to realise  recently how much it helps me to know something about the history or interests of an artist in order to more fully appreciate their work. That’s not to undermine in any way the importance of the solely visual impact. And I definitely don’t like the verbiage and arts peak that goes into many ‘artists statements’. I’m searching for a middle ground and would welcome comments

donegal clouds

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Last piece of coarse jute off the roll
120cm x 190cm

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May sky

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Using a brush to block in the shapes

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Maybe done

Footnote: I was given a fabulous book on #RichardDiebenkorn for my 60th birthday. I am enthralled by his famous shifts from abstraction to figuration and back again, and am particularly drawn to his paintings with human and animal forms ambiguously appearing within his landscapes.
The curvaceous shapes in these clouds seemed to appear initially by their own volition, but of course I then exaggerated them. Maybe also with Matisse in mind. And someone said maybe a nod to Magritte too! Haha! Good company 🙂