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!

Performance and Paint

We went to the Mermaid Arts Centre this afternoon to hear Vyvienne Long and The Balanescu Quartet do a rehearsal for their gig Saturday week.  It was fascinating to hear them play, and the banter as they tweaked a few pieces to perfection.  It was supposed to be open to the public for half an hour, but 45 mins went very fast.  What a lovely way to spend lunch!

In the meantime, I am also working on some new paintings for my Moments series and revelling in my recent acquisitions from London -- Liquitex paint bought at Cass Art in Richmond and my new Van Gogh book with lots of colour pix!  I have also been enjoying my various bits of reading, including the manuscript of a novel (unpublished so far) of one of my sisters-in-law.

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!

London - 2

We spent a day in the Science Museum, which is pretty fabulous!  There is a huge hands-on section for kids of all ages.  Here we are learning about infra-red and heat detection.

We also saw a 3D Imax film, Deep Sea, which we thoroughly enjoyed!  Elise was delighted that Captain Jack Sparrow (aka Johnny Depp) was one of the 2 narrators (Kate Winslet being the other).  We also went to the short Apollo Experience in 4D (the chairs moved, we got sprayed by water at splashdown, etc.).  It was a full fun day!  The next day (I think) among other things, we went to the British Museum to meet up with some favourites.  Elise wanted to see the Rosetta Stone again as she didn't remember it from last time and her class had been studying Egypt earlier this year.  We also made special re-visits to the Sutton Hoo artifacts which I love, the Egyptian galleries and the Easter Island giant stone figure.

We got to the Saatchi Gallery on the Wednesday, specifically to see Richard Wilson's installation in the basement.  The room is filled with sump oil except for that small angular walkway.  Unfortunately the walkway is not open to the public, so viewing is from a balcony.  The reflections are pure and the room is so serene.

I also did a Placement© while we were waiting to check in, as we had arrived a bit early to Heathrow.

Bet on this!

I'll do another post on visiting museums & galleries in London later, but in the meantime I thought this was too funny/interesting to resist!  My Mum gets the Racing Post regularly as she bets on horse races, but there are plenty of other things to bet on!