Blog
ART ONLINE
Art Online
The exhibition openings have started again in town. I went to my friend Frank O’Dea’s Art Gallery, Balla Ban, in Westbury Mall, Dublin to see a new young artist Ray Tsang. I have already some of Ray’s still life’s in my house and bought another piece at the opening. Here is a picture of Ray on the left with some of my other art buddies.
Just got the unselected letter from RHA, boo hoo!! Well will just do it all again next year and you never know!! So will meet up with all the other members of the reject club on Saturday. Check out the facebook page online dedicated to all unselected artists. Some of the artists have uploaded pictures.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Royal-Hibernian-Academy-Unselected-show-2013/594025613941318
Good news at last, balla ban gallery have decided to show some of the unselected artists work. Frank O’Dea curator asked me to bring in one of the unselected pieces and he will show it in the gallery for a little while. well who would have thunk it!!! Moi in a gallery. Am so delighted and thankful to Frank for giving me this opportunity.
Next outing is in St. Stephens Green, Dublin weekend of the 10th May. Come and check out the affordable art for sale there. Do stop and say hi. Working on a few new pieces to have ready to hang. Hope we get a good spot. We are on the east side turn right after Shelbourne Hotel.
Looking forward to the summer weekends when I can show paintings on the railings in Malahide and in town. Sunny weather everyone is in a good mood and lots of people out and about and maybe in the mood to buy!!!
TIP OF THE DAY
After griding up your canvas and drawing your picture, make sure and erase unwanted lines, it saves having to cover them up later.
ART CLASSES
Art classes
Here I am in the east asia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Weather was very hot and humid. I am attending my art class, with Amir Ariffen near the National Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur. I found out about Amir’s art classes about 4 years ago and appreciate the great help and guidance he gives. Painting in Asia is very different to painting in Europe. The paints react differently and also the colours one uses are much brighter. In the studio, we have some fans and the A.C. very much needed.
In the classes everyone paints much larger canvases than here in Ireland and they also paint much more colourful paintings. It must be the sunshine and the many cultures which give the different hues and subjects and this makes for much more colourful creations. Most of my paintings in Kuala Lumpur stay there because the large size of some of them and are mostly commissions or gifts. See my gallery for some of the works I completed here in Malaysia.
I visited Manila, Phillipines and Krabi, Thailand also this trip so watch out for beautiful holiday pictures from there online soon.
I had a very successful showing at the Portmarnock Art Group Annual Exhibition early April. Sold a painting, and as a new member this was quite unexpected. A great turn out and the exhibition was opened by Entrepreneur Gavin Duffy who was very entertaining.
TIP OF THE DAY
Always have mood music playing in the background when painting. It is amazing the difference it makes to help you concentrate. All the everyday noise fades away.
PAINTINGS
Paintings
Since my success at Christmas, I have worked on some commission paintings mostly for significant birthdays and getting my online art ready.
I exhibited with a group in Phoenix Park Visitor centre at the beginning of February, a beautiful exhibition space, I will definitely keep it in mind for future showings. Great fixings for hanging any size painting.
One of the demonstrations we had this year in Portmarnock Art Group was from Ronan Goti a very well established artist in his own right. We got loads of advice on basically how to set up a comfortable work space and the demonstration with charcoal was just amazing.
Ronan has his exhibition opening in Avoca Malahide at the beginning of May. Looking forward to seeing some of his new work.
The Art Group also went to the National Art Gallery for the annual talk on Turner’s sketches and we viewed his work later. A great day out.
I am preparing some work for the RHA competition. It is always very hard to think of what the competition judges are looking for, I believe now that it is really just the luck of the draw why anyone gets picked but I always hope. Here are some pieces that I think might catch their attention, Autumn in Malahide acrylic and Rooftops in Portugal oil .
TIP OF THE DAY
Give your paint brushes a Spa day every so often. Soak in liquid detergent and then rinse.
ONLINE ART
Online Art
Welcome to my first online art blog. Let’s hope it will be the first of many. I will post regular blogs which will be both educational and informative. I will have a TIP OF THE DAY each time I post a blog and any new method I learn or gadget I find will be passed on. I will upload my latest art online and even some work in progress. I am in the process of photographing my pictures to a higher quality so bear with me while I replace current photographs progressively. You will see me at work both home and away. I intend to travel more this year and will relate my painting stories to you online.
There are some regular exhibitions that I show paintings in during the year and I will advise you in good time when they are on.
I just want to update everyone on the last few months in my art world.
Myself and my friend Anne Harnett had our first combined art exhibition in Malahide library just before christmas. I paint in oils and am experimenting with acrylics and Anne paints in watercolour and experiments with oils. We both cover a variety of subject matter and had great success, both having many sales and we were delighted at the amount of people who braved the weather and turned up to celebrate our first opening together. Wine and mince pies hit the spot and Malahide Gazette captured the scene in a double page spread in their Christmas issue.
We want to thank Mary Farrell of Village Books who very kindly opened the exhibition for us, our sponsors Gibneys of Malahide and Ampersand and also the staff of the library who were so helpful on the day.
TIP OF DAY
Always pick canvas the same shape as your picture to paint. It makes it easier to transfer/upsize when the shape is similar.