Incognito!

A few years ago I participated in a charitable fundraiser The Big Egg Hunt Dublin, which was a great success and also enjoyable. The Jack and Jill Foundation fundraiser for 2017 is called "incognito" and I am looking forward to starting my contribution. Before the holiday I received my incognito package, consisting of 3 small cards and an envelope with which to return them to the Foundation. Artists have been asked to create up to three small works, signed only on the back of the card, thereby being an initially unknown creator. All completed artworks will be displayed at the Solomon Gallery in Dublin in the spring, and will be for sale at a set price. The artists will remain unknown until the works are bought. I already know what I want to create on the three cards, so will get to them soon. I won't be posting finished pictures until the fundraiser is over, but I may post some teasers of work in progress. Happy New Year!

Encaustic

I recently read an article by Morgan Meis relating to "No Regrets" an exhibition by Jasper Johns at MoMA, New York. As well as getting me thinking about a number of artistic issues, it also got me to thinking about encaustic painting. Jasper Johns was the main artist whose work I looked at in the 80s for guidance on this medium. Johns flag paintings from the 1950s, inspired by a dream, encapsulate the visceral tendency of pure paint: with encaustic painting the immediacy of each brushstoke is preserved.

On my first trip to New York while at art school in the early 80s, I would have come across Johns's work at either the MoMA or Whitney and fallen in love with the painterliness.

I was also interested in Johns's use of newsprint layers providing extra surface texture on the canvas.

I found out that encaustic is a mixture of beeswax, oil paint and turpentine melted and mixed together and I began my own experiments with the medium. The mixture is applied while melted and therefore still warm. Although I did a few paintings on canvas they do not exist any more, nor did I photograph them. The only thing I have left to show that I ever painted in encaustic is a photograph of a large triptych on paper. This hung on the walls of several of my apartments in Toronto, until, with all my moving around, it totally fell apart.

Last year, while participating in The Big Egg Hunt Dublin (fundraiser for the Jack and Jill Foundation) I was delighted to make the acquaintance of Niamh O'Connor, whose encaustic egg I had admired. On meeting me, I remember that Niamh was surprised to meet another artist who was familiar with encaustic. She might have found it amusing to see me delightedly sniffing the heady beeswax and oil smell of her giant yellow egg, reminiscing with myself about this wonderful medium.

The Big Egg Hunt - Farewell!

This morning I was in Dublin for the Big Egg Hunt artist event and photocall. It was great to see all the eggs gathered in one basket (so to speak).  Impossible though to take a picture to show all 100 in the T-space of the building, plus the side gallery. Here is mine, Wild Roses, in the foreground, Lynda Cookson's Aspirations in the middle ground, and James's Hilbert Curve just beyond (then the others become a colourful blur).

A view of the other row of eggs (the floor plan was like a big T -- two rows going down the stem and then bunches at either side of the entrance.  There was also a gallery with the 30 something eggs which will be auctioned live on Saturday night at the gala event.

And I was giving my egg a big hug goodbye, as today will probably be the last time I see it.  There have been bidders, so it will go to someone at the end of March.

Good Egg Hunting!

Yesterday, despite the freezing climate, we ventured into Dublin to find some of the eggs.  Mine was tucked away inside Dublin Castle grounds, near to the Chester Beatty Library.  There was a tiny bit of damage done to "Wild Roses" -- a bit of blue paint chipped off, probably in the siting move, leaving a tiny circle of white.  Though probably not noticeable to most people, I will touch it up next week when the eggs are all brought together in a space at the IFSC in Dublin.  That will be my final goodbye to this egg.  :)

Painter Felim Egan's egg is so much more beautiful than any photo can show.  He is a well known painter whose work is in the National Gallery, and this simply is one of his paintings wrapped around an egg shape.  It an encaustic painting and deliciously tactile.  This egg was also in Dublin Castle grounds.

I watched some Facebook postings of Lynda Cookson's egg "Aspirations" in progress.  I love the painting!  It was found in Powerscourt Townhouse shopping centre.

Niamh O'Connor's "Laced" was also at Powerscourt Townhouse.

Again, all the photos I had seen of this piece did not do it justice.  There is an amazing amount of detail of pressed lace; again this is an encaustic egg which is absolutely beautiful!

We moved on to Brown Thomas on Grafton St.  This is a shop that has a doorman wearing livery and a top hat...  James Hayes's Hilbert Curve was in among the very expensive shoe department.  A member of staff very kindly offered to take our picture around the egg, and was chuffed that one of our party was the artist (James is my husband).

There was nice lighting on Hilbert Curve, and a very large mirror nearby.

We were surprised that designer Louise Kennedy's "La Duchesse" seemed to be tucked away in a not very interesting spot beside the elevators.

As can be expected from a designer of Kennedy's calibre, La Duchesse is tres elegant, but again, most photos I have seen of it belie what the eye sees in person.

Another well known designer of elegance, John Rocha, created this sparkly egg which we found appropriately in the Tiffany area of Brown Thomas.  Any photos I have seen of this are completely missing its sparkle.

We zoomed around St. Stephen's Green finding the eggs there, and then dived for cover in the warmth of the nearby shopping centre where there were more eggs.  My absolute favourite of all the eggs, seen in photos and live, has got to be Jordi Fornies "Treeborn".  It made my day to be able to see it in person.

Marlay Park

On Sunday we went to Marlay Park after breakfast, to find some of the eggs in The Big Egg Hunt Dublin.  Reportedly there were six there, but we found 7.  This one, Eggscuse the Mess by Frank O'Dea, I particularly like, so had a photo opp!  

It took us ages to find the entrance to the Regency Garden, a walled garden within Marlay Park, where all the eggs were hiding (in plain view -- except the one which is masquerading as a shrubbery).  The entrance was through the coffee shop, where we returned later for twelveses.  The coffee shop patio seems to be the happy home of a peacock and peahen.  Here is the peacock being very impressive indeed!

Painting!

James edited together the film from the plantcam in the studio to create this video of me painting the egg -- 10 days of work tuned down to 2 and a half minutes.  Some feat of magic I'd say!

Eggs Cartoned!

Before packing up the eggs today, James took some closeup details of my egg "Wild Roses".  Here are two of them:

James puts the last bit of tape on my egg box.

And I helped wrap his egg too. :)

The eggs are ready to go, and this is me now at the computer doing one of my favourite things -- that is, planning a vacation, hahaha.

Eggs over easy!

Well it wasn't actually easy.  It was a lot of work, but now it is done; it was also lots of fun to do and a great way to start the year off.  Here I am yesterday, almost finished!  I felt like I was painting continents and oceans...

Today James was taking proper shots of us with our finished eggs.  Here's me and mine!

James put images of the four sides altogether.

Eggs-austed!

So I have been very busy since last Tuesday, working on this egg.  A little more detail after blocking.

 With the blue background it is starting to give more of a sense of what it may look like when finished. 

Since I'm up in the attic (my studio garret) my working soundtrack is provided by the dvd player, which means one cd at a time.  I alternate between 2 cds all day long -- PJ Harvey's "Let England Shake" and Tindersticks's "The Something Rain".  They are both fantastic cds, energetic and thoughtful - perfect for painting to.

Eggs-citement!

Yesterday was a very exciting day as the giant eggs arrived...Okay, I will start at the beginning. Last Thursday night James (my husband) saw a facebook posting calling for artists to decorate eggs for The Big Egg Hunt in Dublin in aid of The Jack & Jill Foundation children's charity. We had been talking of getting more involved with things going on and saw this as an opportunity. Enquiries were made on Friday and by the end of the day we knew we were going to get eggs early this week, especially as there was a very short deadline involved (unknown to us, this event was launched in October last!).  So here I am after gessoing my  egg yesterday.

Today of course, I set to as soon as my daughter was off to school.  Here I am blocking in the flowers, leaves and the rosehips of my design (based on Irish wild roses). I always start a painting with a ground of quinacridone violet, and use yellow as a block. I will be very busy until this is finished, so just about everything else is on hold!