On The Edge of Abstraction at Urban Retreat Gallery from 18th Feb
‘On the Edge of Abstraction’ opens this Thursday (18th Feb) at The Urban Retreat Gallery in Dublin. I am delighted to be in the company of some of my favourite Irish contemporaries namely Tom Climent, Carol Hodder & Bridget Flannery.
The shows runs until the 15th March so if you’re in Dublin please do pop in.
So says my dear friend Sophie – and I believe her! And so, although slow in starting – I’m beginning this year with a poem, a really great poem!
‘Oceans’ by Juan Jimenez – for me – keeps at bay all those anxieties about beginnings! You know when you have a hunch of an inkling of something, the smallest germ of an idea ‘… in the depths, against a great thing…’ Yet still feel stalled, somehow, as if waiting for a sign or guidance to take action, like you’re waiting for your life to start – when in fact you are already ‘…standing quietly in the new life’. Whatever you wish for yourself in 2010, I wish you great beginnings.
Oceans by Juan Ramon Jimerez
And so to work…. I’ve been here at my desk much of this week catching up on admin as my studio is so very cold. I am loving this winter weather (seemingly the harshest in 50 years!) as everywhere looks so beautiful and still – it is also a great time to sit by fire, eat hearthy and make hefty plans for the year to come.
Spring forward - well almost!
In 2010 I want to make BIG work – large, loquacious pieces made outdoors – directly IN the landscape. Much of my work in 2009 was studies on paper – loose landscapes – a sort of edging towards these bigger pieces whose time seems nigh! To this end, for the rest of this month I’ll be working out on the coast of Kerry in Ballinskelligs – a small famine village on Bolus Head in the Iveragh Peninsula – thanks to the selection panel at Cill Rialaig Artist’s Retreat – who have kindly offered me a residency cottage and studio. More on that as it happens
'Holding Back Time' Signed, Limited Edition. December 2009
Water! Water! Everywhere! And not a drop to drink!
So went the recent epic Cork floods. Thankfully my landlord had sandbagged the building so my studio remained dry as a bone despite the 3ft ‘Venice by the Lee’ installation lapping outside the door! Bizarre then, after the deluge, to be without water for a week!
Not so lucky for some! On the morning of the flooding I was picking up some work from the ever genial Marcus Framers, on passing The Mercy (Hospital) I was stricken by the damage. One of Cork’s oldest institutions, The Mercy could only be described as ‘Flood Central’ – facing as it does the now shattered wall where the river Lee burst through to the city.
Mercy Hospital Flood - Cork City, December 2009
Although the staff and all manner of great Corkonians have worked around the clock to get The Mercy back up and running, the scale of the damage has been vast – the entire ground floor was destroyed. I decided I wanted to do something to help and so I’m now releasing a signed, limited edition of ‘Holding Back Time’ - my mixed media collage artwork in association with the Mercy Hospital Foundation Flood Fund.
The edition is limited in number to fifty. Priced at €200.00, each handmade piece comes mounted and framed in a white box frame (measuring 30cm X 40cm). €50.00 from the sale of each handmade piece will be donated directly to the Mercy Hospital Foundation
‘Holding Back Time’ is on display at the following venes in Cork:
* Marcus Framing, Adelaide St, Cork City (just up from The Mercy Hospital)
* Henchy’s Bar, St Lukes Cross,
* Gorgeous Hair Salon, George’s Quay
* Artisan Hair Salon’s , Douglas & Grange.
‘Holding Back Time’ can also be viewed and purchased HERE on my site.
For more information about the piece please call me directly on 087-3275131
Donations to The Mercy Hospital can be made HERE.
Actions speak louder than words - Don't miss it!
It’s that time of year again – when Cork city comes alive in a surreal sea of artists – it can only be Art Trail! Following something of a risque opening on Friday 13th, the all-encompassing Arts Fest will run until Sunday 22nd November.
The theme of this years festival is Rediscovering Locality. In keeping with the theme, myself and many other local artists will be flinging our studio doors open in the hope that you’ll pay us a visit. In addition to the Open Studio larks there’s a stellar line up of curated and one-off installation works to be found throughout the city – for FREE! Oh it IS starting to feel a lot like Christmas!
For a full programme of activities and listings for all Open Studios please see the official website here
Hola Amigos! Never mind the rain, frost and chilly cold – I’m just back from two weeks of blissful art-making in sunny Baja, Mexico. My seratonin tank - it doth runneth over!
Ok! Ok! No one needs to hear that. Suffice to say it was a brilliant, brilliant time and I made art every day – so it’s work – right? I took the trip to coincide with El Día de los Muertos - Day of the Dead - the Mexican All Souls Day Festival and a wonderful workshop with Sabrina Ward Harrison – an early and long-standing artistic infleunce of mine. Facilitated by Angela Ritchie of ACE Camps (that’s A for Adventure, C for Culture and E for Education!) – who I can’t praise highly enough – the trip was hands down, the best and most worthwhile adventure I have ever taken (and there have been a few!) – complete with fine food, fab facilities and Fun! If you ever get the opportunity – Don’t Stop, Go!
Beginnings of a Mexican Odyssey, Cardboard & Colour, Colour, Colour!
Our 10-day workshop focussed on collage and book making – or in Sabrina’s words “making the book you most need to find” – Sabrina is something of an authorityon the subject, having had her journals and artwork published as ‘Spilling Open’ in 1999.
Mexican Odyssey, Baja 2009
I had intended doing collage and book work but went a little overland – couldn’t stay away from the paint! – and came up with my ‘Mexican Odyssey’ series of loose landscapes. Having just missed the tailend of a hurricane and days upon days of rain – the whole sodden, sunny desert began to bloom around us and it would have been impossible not to document it! The Baja is a great environment to make work in – as it’s full of debris and driftwood and you can see from the pics above, I took a little more than memories home! You can view the collection on the main site here and in the Cork studio – dates on forthcoming shows to be announced very soon so please watch this space.
'Solitary Sligo', Mixed media on canvas, will be exhibited at Canvas Gallery as part of the 'Christmas 200' Show
I visited Sligo for the first time a few weeks back and loved it. The purpose of my trip was a little reckky to get some inspirational shots for the ReTurning series. With the onset of darker days it’s good to have a nice stack of reference shots as I continue to work into the series throughout autumn and winter.
One of the great joys of living in Ireland again is the immediacy of the coastline – it’s wonderful to be out in the landscape so frequently and with such ease. Our weather certainly helps you to feel part of the elements too. While in Sligo, I stayed out in Rosses Point and so had lots of exposure to the silvery shoreline and - thanks to encroaching storms – lots of big, blustery skies. I hadn’t planned to work up the Sligo additons to the series until later in the year but, upon returning to Cork, found I couldn’t get those great gray slabs of sky from my easel and so a small section of these sligo paintings are to be included in The Canvas Gallery ‘Christmas 200′ show – which opens on 26th November.
'Surf at Strandhill', Mixed media on canvas, will be exhibited at Canvas Gallery as part of the 'Christmas 200' Show
The ‘Christmas 200′ show is an annual show at Canvas which, as you might expect, comprises 200 pieces – that’s 2 pieces by 100 invited Artists – all work is priced at £250 with 20% going to The Marie Curie Hospice Foundation. If you’re in Belfast make sure to pop in to Canvas at 76 Stranmillis Rd. The show runs until Christmas. For more information please contact the Canvas Gallery directly on 02890 222 727
Annual Art Exhibition – In Aid of Anita’s Orphanage, Cambodia
Henchy’s Bar St. Lukes Cross, Cork.
Oh how I love to sell a painting! Well show me a painter who doesn’t! It is particularly great to sell a painting when the commission is going to a great cause. And so I’m particularly delighted to have sold three pieces as part of Henchy’s Annual Exhibition.
Henchy’s Annual Art Show is something of an artistic institution here in Cork – given that the pub has provided shelter and solace to generations of artists for… well generations, forever (well for a very long time anyway!). Should you stroll in the door any given night you’ll find a great accompaniment of Painters seated at the bar – quite literally some of Ireland’s finest contemporary practitioners.You’ll also find amazing musicians, rancantours and a pervalence of good, fun people throughout.
Henchy’s host the annual Art Exhibition to showcase the work of its patrons – who in turn donate their ‘commission’ to Anita’s Orphanage, Cambodia – a most worthwhile charity established by Martin, another of the pubs legendary locals. Martin organises the annual show amongst a whole calender of events -including an Annual ‘Stew Festival’! Over the years the show has gained in momentum and become popular on collectors calenders and indeed amongst contemporary Irish artists who are keen to be in company with Kingerlee, La Brocquy and the likes.
Don’t miss it! Be warned though – recession or no – it does sell out fast.
For more information please contact Martin on 087 6536192 or Maura on 086 8220116
One of the great things about being in New York was knowing that the dark days of the Bush administration have finally ended. The whole sea change was terrifically tangible EVERYWHERE but mostly on the streets. I loved this street art which appeared in NYC just before the election. It is not known who the artist is but it has been attributed to all manner of people including Banksy. You can see the original images here at Global Graphica (a handy index of street art) and can pick up prints from street vendors outside The Guggenheim gallery. See more great graphic art by Studio Manhattan Fine Art here. If you know whodunnit? Lemme know! As I love their work, man tis special – as themsay stateside.
Oh So Bad Blogger! Apologies for late posting – it’s been bedlam here!
To surmise – we had a fabulous time. It was super to be in New York. I think the sheer energy of the city had fallen off my memory – It was SO buzzy! And the heat – this too was overwhelming – but just went to intensify the experience.
The New York International Gift Show was HUGE! With 2,900 exhibitors, 30,000 buyers and a mere 100,000 product lines – it gets a little busy at NYIGF. Exhibitors range from homeware to stationers with scope for everything in between. The sheer volume of exhibitors is overwhelming but well worth the trawl. I was giving myself a well-deserved pat on the back having ‘done’ the ‘Hand Made’ section in a mere 2 hours – only to realise there was a whole other floor! Note to self – wear flats! Worth noting too that ‘Hand Made’ was just one of EIGHT product divisions – so if you’re attending and short on time – make a strategy. I was keen to have a good ol’ nosey in all sections and – although totally exhausting – it was well worth it as I discovered great products and people on almost every aisle – here are a couple of my favourites:
Just one of BeeGee's Beautiful Handmade bags
Remember that Ad – ‘You can tell a wella woman by the way she wears her hair’ ? Well, it seems to me that you can tell a commited emerging artist by the way they kick their shoe / handbag habit – sidelining all manner of fripperies (ah Mac mon ami – our parting a sweet, sweet sorrow!) in favour of ‘fine’ art supplies. Having curbed a handbag habit in recent years – something seriously HAD to give – from time to time I am more than impressed by my ability, nay sheer strength and resolve, to walk-on-by beautiful bags. NO such resilience was in evidence when I happened upon Brooke Galardi’s display. Oh how beautiful they were – swinging from her equally elegant stall. Brooke is the creator of the wonderul BeeGee hand-made handbag collection which I defy any right-thinkin’, hip swingin’, handbag fancyin’ person not to love. I loved each of the bags – they come in 3 different styles and range from $50 upwards. Brooke also does custom orders. Infact, her wares have already made it onto the Irish wedding circuit. I love too that Brooke is a self-taught handbag maker – necessity being the mother of fashion and all – that being the case, BeeGee bag expenditure can probably be filed under ‘Art’ (supplies, right?) You decide Handbags? or Art?
Art Collage by Joni Lewis
Joni Ulman Lewis was at the NYIGF showcasing her gift line and just happened to bring along some of her art collages – aren’t they amazing? I love collage and flit between it and painting as a matter of course. I love the way Joni has preserved these items with such sanctity and reverence in sealed boxes.
A selection of Papaya greeting cards
I was delighted to meet the Papaya people whilst in NY. The family business, which cosolidates a daughters artistic genius with her mother’s business acumen, produce gorgeus greeting cards, stationery and artworks for sale. They’ve recently collaborated with Sabrina Ward Harrison – a dear, favoured Artist of mine – to produce a line of affordable art and stationery – one word – Wonderful!
I’m still sifting through the stacks of info I brought home form NYC and haven’t had a mo to tell you about all the great art I got to see whilst en vacances so please do watch this space for more soon. In the meantime – Sligo!
Glad tidings! My first trip into blogosphere must surely merit another – and so it is to New York I wander immediment!
I’m taking a little trip tomorrow to that wonderful city to attend the New York International Gift Fair – work, see! I’ll be attending with thousands of others to see and be seen – well more to be seen in my case! The show is held twice annually so that those buying and selling in the gift industry can meet and horse trade. It really is an international affair though with lots and lots of europeans in attendance.
I’m going along in the guise of guest to my very best friend Clare Elisabeth Jordan. Clare, of the burgeoning design empire in the making – Clare Jordan Designs – is going along to showcase her wares – ( a fabulous range of handmade gifts and accessories – go look-see now www.clarejordandesigns.com) as part of the happy home that is Ellie & Friends.
It’s a particularly special trip for Clare & I as we haven’t been in the big city since we first ventured there in search of our fortune – oh just a few years ago – when we were niave and 19! Well look out New York because we’re back! Like squillions of Irish before us we New York bound to make our fortune (again!) and / or buy shoes!
I’ll be back with a full report and pics asap!
