Wanting to get better at blogging! + New Fine Art prints available on Etsy

I'm going to try to post more on this! Is blogger dead now anyway?! Are Instagram / Twitter / Pinterest the way to go? Is it all just a giant waste of time?! Who knows! Anyway, i'm going to get back to blogging more either way...

I've recently made prints (in multiple sizes) available of two of my paintings from the recent Over The Line studio show. Both of which can be purchased from my Etsy shop, yay!

Fertile

Rainsong

New digital download prints on the shop...

I've been enjoying getting into the world of Etsy and it definitely gives me a sense of accomplishment to see how much work I have, I pretty much always feel like I need to be doing more, so it's satisfying to see that I actually have a lot to show for myself!

I noticed that you can sell work as a download also on the site, and I went back to the many digital illustrations i've done over the years and threw up a few different examples - shown here. All work available for download can be found here.
Yay art!

Finalised Rainsong (or close to finalised!)

Rainsong.

Walking in an ethereal earth

the cause you fell for far too deep

dissipate of any worth

In this ethereal earth

The feeling that you had to keep

For fear, for hesitation

for to save your reservation

Anticipation filled with doubt,

All you have derived

And all you tried to figure out

            In an ethereal world you walk

While someone else is waiting

In the space between two worlds apart

For you to keep your heart.

Rainsong brought him out into the night,

She danced on city river rails and curbs
beneath his skin.

Away from all the indoor lights, howling

deep within, the purple colours of the night

She found him.

Dizzied from the dust, that sparkled from her

breath. Untrembling he touched, a life that

breathed death.

A high hum coming from the sky, unsettled

him again- pulling apart, left standing by although,

She could not wait

Eoin Murray, 2014

I think this is finished! This was an interesting and very long process. it started out as an abstract painting:

The painting was based on Eoin's poem, Rainsong, I worked on it in it's abstract form for a long time before deciding it was finished, but then going over and back about whether or not it really was! I've been doing mainly portraiture the last while, and after seeing an image on Instagram which set off another image in my own mind, I started experimenting with it in Photoshop, layering over many different photographs before I found one that I felt really worked. I created a photoshop painting of this photo, to bring the painterly feel into it, and then got it printed onto canvas. I wasn't happy at all with the canvas print however! The colours were completely washed out, so I worked back into it with oils and gave it the vibrancy I first wanted. I'm happy with it now, and it's strange developing a new process, it gives me a lot to think about!

Mark Clare - I Believe In You

Image taken from markclare.com

Mark Clare has a beautiful exhibition in Crawford art gallery at the moment. My favourite piece is DemocraCity. I first saw it at Dublin Contemporary and it totally transfixed me then as it did last Saturday when I visited the Crawford exhibit. There's something very hypnotic about it, there's a deep sense of isolation, almost moving into bleakness. The landscape depicted seems both desolate and pure at the same time. The music accompanying it is just beautiful as well. It's one of the loveliest and most impactful pieces of video art i've ever seen.

The exhibition has quite an academic write-up of the concepts behind the video, I wasn't aware of any of this while watching it and was still totally captivated and absorbed by the piece without knowing any of the politics behind it.

Here's an excerpt from the exhibition publication:

In the animation we travel through a timeline of iconic Modernist buildings, symbolic of a utopian dream and on through a cityscape and the industrial structures necessary to deliver the fuel that powers our cities. Finally we move into a landscape based on artist renditions for the Onkalo waste depository site...

You can read more about the work here.

It's in the Crawford gallery until November 1st, go see it!

Na hOibreacha, Crawford 2014

I finally got a chance to call into the 4th year show in Crawford today. Some beautiful work as always, here are some of my highlights...

Constance Roberts

Femke Vandenburg

Helen Stringer

Maria Elizabeth Muller-Took

Kfest 2014!

Camden Palace

Suadela

Niamh Leonard

Lorraine McDonnell

Nan McSweeney

Daniel Ryan

I was at KFest last weekend, a music and arts festival in Killorglin. It was my first time going there and I was so impressed with it! I was there because my friends in the fab Suadela bellydance troup were performing and I was blown away by the amount of amazing art and music everywhere. The organisers did an unbelievable job of commandeering abandoned spaces around Killorglin and filling them with art. The town itself seemed to respond really well and all ages were out & about enjoying the great atmosphere, art and music. Camden Palace seemed to be at the heart of things, hosting one of the most vibrant and welcoming spots there. I was just there on the Sunday and managed to catch some great music as well in the form of the Non Toxic Orchestra, danced my socks off!

I've a few pics here, my crappy camera phone really doesn't do the work justice, but i've just bought a new Canon powershot so hopefully there'll be some good pics coming soon! Niamh Leonard and Lorraine McDonnell have an upcoming show in Camden Palace, opening 27th June at 7pm, and the Non Toxic Orchestra are playing at it, i'll be away but it'll be a great evening!

Contrast 2014

Aileen Keenaghan

Cliodhna O'Connor

Hugh Heffernan

Kate Delaney

The Visual Communications degree show opened on the 29th of May. Unfortunately I didn't make the night itself but called in to see the work later in the week. As always I was really impressed with the standard. I'm getting really frustrated with my camera phone as the quality is so terrible!! New camera on the horizon...

Yayoi Kusama

yayoi kusama
Infinity mirrored room – the souls of millions of light years away, 2013
Wood, metal, glass mirrors, plastic, acrylic panel, rubber, led lighting system, and acrylic balls.
113 x 163 3/8 x 168 1/8 inches (287 x 415 x 427 cm)
Courtesy david zwirner and yayoi kusama studio inc. photo: maris hutchinson.

A good friend of mine, Erica Grainger, introduced me to Yayoi Kusama a few years ago. I instantly loved her! I love loads of colour, bold shapes and forms so she ticked all my boxes.

The above image from her latest solo show in NYC totally blew me away. I would love to stand in that room.

Here are some more stunning images from the show, I want to go there! The paintings are interesting but the installation rooms really blow me away:

Images via designboom.com and complex.com

And the totally amazing lady herself....

Update: More pics and a video have recently appeared on www.thisiscolossal.com/, it looks so amazing!

ATAI Conference 2013

I could only attend the Friday night of this years ATAI conference. The exhibition of student work was again really inspiring. The standard is incredible. Here are a few images from the evening.