Illustration and Books

While in Dublin last week, I couldn't resist this book of Fairy Tales illustrated beautifully by Harry Clarke. It was only when I moved to Ireland 20 years ago that I realised Clarke was an Irish artist, although I was familiar with his illustrations since childhood and had seen the gorgeous stained glass windows at the Hugh Lane Gallery on previous visits to Dublin. 

Reading the introduction to this book, I found out it was a re-print publication with all new photos of the illustrations as one of the original books was now in the possession of the National Gallery of Ireland. The original book can be viewed in the prints & drawings section of the gallery by appointment only, and I plan to do it!

Another colour plate from the book:

Illustration from its Golden Age (i.e., 19th & early 20th century) has been a life-long interest of mine (and I think most of my sisters too). My favourite illustrator is usually Edmund Dulac and The Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe illustrated by Dulac is still one of my prized possessions. Though the image below is not from that book, it gives a sense of Dulac's style. I used to have this picture hanging on my wall when I was growing up.

Speaking of sisters, my sister Yvonne Whelan, recently had an exhibition of her illustrations ("I Saw Wonderland") at Yumart in Toronto. The image  below is Sleeping Beauty.

Aubrey Beardsley was another favourite, though I bemoan the sale of several of his books when I left Canada, including a deluxe copy of Morte d'Arthur. Why oh why?

At least I kept my copy of the Romance of King Arthur illustrated by Arthur Rackham which I had bought on my second visit to New York in 1981. This Rackham illustration was another picture I had on my bedroom wall when I was younger.

Another book which I bemoan selling is The Rime of the Ancient Mariner illustrated by Gustave Doré. But I still remember the fabulous illustrations!

Dublin Visit

Yesterday I went to Dublin with my daughter, on both a cultural and fun visit! After a coffee shop stop once we got to the city, we started the day with a visit to the National Gallery. "Masterpieces of the Collection" was the main exhibition on and I wanted to revisit one of my favourite paintings in the collection - Frederick William Burton's "Hillela and Hildebrand - the Meeting on the Turret Stairs". Unfortunately, due to the sensitivity of the painting, it can only be viewed on certain days and Wednesday wasn't one of them! But here is an image anyway. 

My daughter is familiar with American art history and loves the likes of Jackson Pollock for his action style and painterliness. She had, however, never heard of Jack B Yeats, and I wanted to rectify this! There were  a number of Yeats paintings in the Masterpiece exhibition, and she did like them for the same reasons she likes Pollock. She also enjoyed some 18th century Constable-like landscapes in the collection.

We also popped over to the nearby National Museum of Ireland, which is almost like a home away from home to us. On this visit we focused on the compact but superb Egyptian room. After lunch we went for a glorious stroll (blue sky and heat!) around St. Stephen's Green, before joining the Viking Splash tour of Dublin. The tour takes place in a DUKW vehicle, created for WW2 and we were told that our particular vehicle had been on the beaches of Normandy. Part of the tour takes place in the water of the Grand Canal Basin which makes this a very unique tour of Dublin. The tour includes the wearing of faux Viking hats and shouting at pedestrian "Celts" so it was lots of fun! (The DUKW we were in was the Thor, but they all look the same -- like a boat in the water, and like a truck on land.)

Painting Stairwell

Finally after years of being put on the long finger, James and I both had two days free this week to paint the stairwell and upstairs hall. We have been in this house 11 years, and this is the last section of the house to get a paintjob. One of the most difficult things though was finding a place to stack the contents of the stairwell bookshelves -- books, administration binders, photo albums and lots of homeless miscellaneous items!  The best place for them was the floor in the living room.  Well, we could have used an extra day, but I am working in the office tomorrow and we are having friends up for cocktails on Friday, so it will all be put back in order well before Friday.

Here is the empty stairwell, before painting.  The railing going up to the attic is now white but needs another coat of paint, a semi-gloss, but that will just have to wait till another day!

Signs

 The late 50s does not seem that historically long ago to me, and I remember my father telling me about a sign on a hospital door in Toronto (where he was a new immigrant) saying "No Irish" at the end of an advert for a job.

So when I was a kid in 1971, it was no wonder I loved the anti-establishment song "Signs" by the hippy Ottawa group Five Man Electrical Band. In their song, most signs were a bad thing, as they usually had a negative aspect about them.

Since then, however, I have come to enjoy various signs which catch my attention for their good advice - as in this manipulated sign which appeared in Austin Kleon's book Steal Like an Artist,

their positive affirmation (though this may be graffiti - I am not sure as I found it on the Cass Art facebook page),

charming double meaning (this is a road sign at Nice airport taken out of context, but appropriate to my recent bad experience with French train service),

and/or just plain old surreality! (I know I posted this Dublin sign before, but couldn't resist doing so again.)

Reading and Art

I have been getting back to my Van Gogh letters book, reluctant to finish it as I know the ending... But I was glad that this edition of the letters includes some of the sketches he made and sent off with letters when talking about his art. Like this sketch of his bedroom, which he sent to Theo when he was describing the painting of his bedroom that he was working on.

The letter was dated the 16 October 1888. In a letter from 8 days later, he seems to be speaking to me directly - and I dare to hope it is the truth: "I cannot help it that my pictures do not sell...The day will come, however, when people will see they are worth more than the price of the paint and my living expenses, very meagre on the whole, which we put into them."

Work or conserve?

Since I have been painting the Moments series on raw canvas, I thought I had better do the recommended conservation procedure of applying gel coats to the finished paintings. I hadn't been doing this as I finished the paintings, so had some catching up to do.  I am now on the sixth painting out of 9 finished works, and it is taking awhile as I need to apply 3 coats to each painting. I can only do one painting at a time, as most of them are large. Currently I am applying the gel coat to Chicago Thumb Wars. The gel is diluted with water and dries a clear matte, so the horizontal streaks which are visible in the closeup below will become invisible. I know this is true because I first did some tests, as recommended by Golden paints, and I already have 5 paintings with the gel coat completed before tackling this one!

I am chomping at the bit to finish the gel coats on these paintings so I can finish two more which are also on raw canvas and get their gel coats done. I want to start some large drawings, still in the Moments series but on kraft paper, throwing conservation to the wind! Last week I was asked by the building manager, at the office where I work part time, if I could use a big roll of brown paper. Yes thanks! My husband James was picking me up at work that day with the car and the roll of paper was waiting for me at the exit as I was leaving. The paper roll was very heavy, so James carried it up to the attic studio for me where it looks at me questioningly every time I am working on gel coats...

Pictures and Words

I still have a stack of books on the go, but am particularly enjoying three specific art books I have: the Picasso Museum Antibes permanent collection catalogue that I bought last year after my first visit there, the Jean Charles Blais exhibition catalogue that I bought this year from the Picasso Museum Antibes after seeing Blais's show there, and the Singing Skies.  Singing Skies is the beautiful book created by painter Suzanne Osborne and songwriter/poet/singer Stuart Staples (Tindersticks) -- the book pairs images of Osborne's paintings with Staples's writing.

The other day I took Singing Skies outside to get a better look at the paintings, as the dim indoor light of my house was not doing justice to the paintings. I am not sure if the scan does the painting below justice either as the printing quality in the book is quite good! In any case, the painting below, one of my favourite in the book, is "May 18 2011" and it is paired with Staples's "Marbles". Osborne did a painting of the sky each day for the whole of 2011 and the paintings are simply entitled by date.

Antibes

I did a Placement© off the balcony of the apartment we stayed at while in Antibes. The fuzzy white blur in the distance is Jaume Plensa's Le Nomade lit up at night. The sculpture at the harbour was a convenient short walk from our apartment.

I like coming across interesting graffiti in different places. Though it looks like a drawing in this photo, I think it was actually a stencil/spray image.

One day while walking along the town ramparts along the sea, there were a lot of signs up. There was a major car rally as citroen after citroen drove by with the car occupants waving. In every car it was the same: the occupants wore blue-rimmed sunglasses. This sign, though, we figured was probably for the benefit of a wedding cavalcade using the same route as the car rally!

On the Saturday morning we decided to go to the archaeological museum situated near the seafront in a medieval army barracks.  The museum was quite beautiful, consisting of two large tunnel-like rooms with high ceilings.  It was a small museum but had some fabulous artifacts.

Most of the artifacts were found around Antibes, including items from shipwrecks off the coast. It was interesting to see familiar artifacts, like ancient urns, covered in barnacles. And really great not to be separated from the objects by glass.

Le Nomade - Antibes

While in Antibes we of course paid several visits to the fabulous sculpture Le Nomade by Catalan artist, Jaume Plensa. The figure looks out to sea from the rampart above Port Vauban harbour, a short walk from the apartment we stayed at.

The figure is made up of painted stainless steel letters and invites you to enter it and explore both inside and out. The curve of the arms create a seating space inside, and despite the "no climbing" signs, it is very tempting...

Yes, the sky was really this clear and blue while we were there!

Le Nomade continues to impress at night when it is lit up!

Picasso Museum in Antibes!

I just got back Wednesday night from a week in Antibes! It is happily becoming an annual visit. Last Friday I paid a visit to the beautiful Chateau Grimaldi which is home to the Picasso Museum in Antibes.

From below the ramparts one can see the four bronze figure sculptures by Germaine Richier.

This sculpture, Jupiter et Encelade, by Anne & Patrick Poirier is my favourite sculpture on permanent display. Last year when I was at the museum, the initial proposal drawing was displayed inside next to a window overlooking the sculpture, but  I couldn't find it this year. That is one of Germaine Richier's figures on the wall beside it.

There was a fabulous temporary exhibition by Jean Charles Blais on till June 9th so I just got in there in the nick of time to see it. This is one of his more recent silhouette paintings, but it was fabulous seeing a good overview of his oeuvre.

The museum is of course a setting for lots of Picasso's work! This is one of my favourites, La Chèvre, from 1946.

When I was at the museum last summer I fell in love with this Nicolas de Stael painting, Le Concert 1955. To my disappointment it was not on display this year though it is part of the permanent collection. However, I have the museum catalogue so I can fondly flip through pages.

Summer and Street Art

Welcome June and finally some summer weather! I am indoors cooling off as the front of the house is a suntrap. But the sky is totally blue and it is very pleasant to take short bouts of sunshine outside. I have liked Saatchi Gallery on facebook, so I get to see all manner of stuff in various walks of the visual art world. Summertime is bringing out the "street artists" and "graffiti artists". I don't know what the difference in these labels is... The picture below is by French street artist Seth who  installed this piece in Paris recently.

While this piece is by Belgian graffiti artist Smates.  I don't know where this piece is installed. Do street artists get paid or are they officially allowed to do their work and graffiti artists do it on the sly? Someone please tell me if the terms actually mean something different. Regardless, I like these thought out, oversize images more than the bubble words and scrawly signatures normally associated with graffiti.

Arts Festivals and Self-Image

The other day I was reading an article in The Irish Times on arts festivals around the country and among other things, how exciting they were and seemed to have an edge on regular museums and galleries.  The image below was included in the article; it is a sculpture by David Mach which was placed in a disused space during The Galway Arts Festival last year and drew more than 30,000 visitors. Very impressive figures indeed - I only wished I was among those visitors, as this sculpture of Golgotha looks amazing!

The Wicklow Arts Festival took place last weekend in Wicklow Town, and my husband James had been invited to join a panel to speak about a number of art related issues. While preparing beforehand, going over the topics, case studies and the other panel members a curious but noticeable thing came to light.  As one would expect, all the panel members had a job title after their names as a shorthand for their biography; however, what seemed like "important" job titles were capitalised while anything to do with being an artist was in small case letters. For instance, after my husband's name came the title "Creative Multimedia Consultant/artist", and someone else was an "arts worker" and someone else was a "musician/Teacher".  It struck both me and my husband that this was an odd thing to do for an arts festival event, i.e., place something in the arts as being of less importance than the "day-job".

I thought it was quite a coincidence then when reading an article in Brainpickings "The Pace of Productivity and How to Master Your Creative Routine" that there was a quote from Seth Godin "The notion that I do my work here, now, like this, even when I do not feel like it and especially when I do not feel like it, is very important. Because lots and lots of people are creative when they feel like it, but you are only going to become a professional if you do it when you don't feel like it. And that emotional waiver is why this is your work and not your hobby."

By placing the "art job" in small case (whether musician, visual artist, writer, arts worker) in this context, I think the organisers of the panel in Wicklow minimised the professionalism of the members of the panel with regard to their art career. While this may be an entirely unconscious act, it reflects psycologically on how the public sees those involved in the arts -- generally as hobbyists. Unfortunately artists rarely openly complain about this (I can be pedantic, and James did raise the issue with the organisers) and I worry that this reflects how artists may all too often see themselves!

Birthday and Baking

As I tucked in my 11 year old daughter last night, once again I wished her a happy birthday, but I also told her it was the 11th anniversary of the happiest day of my life. Which indeed it was. Here is the finished sketchbook I made for her. 

Last Saturday, we were doing all the prep work for her party with friends on Sunday. Elise loves Pokémon things and picked out which character which was to appear on her cake this year. The cake is chocolate and the icing is a butter icing.

For Monday's celebration, a fondue dinner with my Mum (Nana) was in order, and the cake was decorated a la Jackson Pollock. Again, it was chocolate with a butter icing.

Yesterday, the actual birthday, Elise had Brownies. So we made chocolate muffins which she decorated using the Brownie colours and symbol with a glace icing. None came home after Brownies, so I guess the troop liked them!

Sculpture and Play!

Slice of the Land is a permanent sculpture created by Fion Gunn for the Zhangjiakou Sculpture Park in Hebei Province, north west China after she participated in an international sculpture symposium outside Beijing last year. It is primarily made of stainless steel and fibreglass but has elements of stone and ceramic which are not apparent in the photo below. Fion is the Irish artist and independent curator based in London who has organised the Irish Wave exhibitions in China for the past 4 years. Recently Fion has set up CATBeijing, a company which provides full tours of the contemporary art scene in Beijing, including translator and guide. The itinerary looks fantastic and I hope to be able to go there myself at some point.  For details check out the website: http://www.catbeijing.com/index.html 

Ever since I saw the first image of Slice of the Land, I was reminded of how much fun I (and my now husband, James) had at the Kröller Müller Museum and sculpture park back in 1992 when we did a trip around Europe (we lived in Toronto at the time, so it was a big trip!).  Certainly Gunn's sculpture has the same inviting sense of play to it that I found with Jean Dubuffet's Jardin d'email.

That day in May 1992 (21 years ago!) James and I were the only people running around on Dubuffet's sculpture. The sculpure is made of painted concrete and epoxy resin and is accessed from the park through steps which lead up a little stairwell inside the sculpture and out a small doorway (seen to the left).

I don't think James meant to look like the wonderful John Cooper Clarke as he ran along, but that is who he reminds me of - see the album cover below!

Suzanne Osborne and Tindersticks

I love the band Tindersticks and am really taken with their new album "the something rain" (I listened to it A LOT while I was in the attic painting my big egg).  I am excited at the news that they are coming to Dublin in October, at a wonderful small venue, Vicar St.  The last concert I have been to in fact was at Vicar St. where the excellent American bands Low Anthem and Brown Bear played.  This is the only Tindersticks song I could find on YouTube from "the something rain".

Another thing that fascinated me about this cd was the cover, which was obviously a series of paintings. Happily, the cd contained a pullout insert printed with a few of the paintings, and the artist was of course credited. So I googled Suzanne Osborne and found her website http://www.suzanneosborne.com/small-paintings, which included the section on "small paintings". She painted the sky daily for a year, and on her website she gives the date and weather conditions the day of the painting. I love the paintings and would love to see them in person. The closest thing for me though will probably be a copy of the limited edition book that Osborne and Stuart Staples (Tindersticks) are putting out together -- Osborne's paintings and Staples' lyrics. My copy is ordered! You can find more information here:  http://www.tindersticks.co.uk/tomorrows/.

Making books

I think it was in 1993 that I attended Judith Patterson's one day workshop on book making at the Women's Art Resource Centre in Toronto.  Judith showed the participants the principles and techniques behind basic book making and everyone went home with a medieval style tacket book (the light green one on the top of the pile).  Since then I have been making variations on the theme as gifts for friends and family -- sketchbooks and journals with cardboard, denim, leather, and heavy fancy paper covers.  I have recently started working on a leather cover one for Elise's birthday which is coming up.  Apparently her travel sketchbook (the denim one on which I embroidered her name), which was the first one I made for her, is just about full and she needs a replacement (the cardboard one underneath it, also with her name on it, is too large for travel).  The picture below includes sketchbooks I have made for myself, James and Elise.

Reading - Margaret Atwood

I just recently finished Margaret Atwood's "In Other Worlds: SF & the Human Imagination" and had to find a place for it on the bookshelf.  Were there ever a lot of Atwood books already there!  I guess I like her writing, which I was first introduced to back in 1978 or '79 when I read The Edible Woman.  Reading everything between the covers of In Other Worlds, I discovered that "Oryx & Crake" and "The Year of the Flood" are part of a trilogy.  How did I miss this?  Mr Google helped out:  "Maddaddam" is due to be published in September of this year.  Yay!

In addition to my own reading, I and James (my husband) read with our ten year old daughter nightly.  At the moment we are having quite a laugh reading Salman Rushdie's "Haroun and the Sea of Stories".  This was a book I picked up more than 20 years ago at the PEN benefit in Toronto, when Rushdie made his first public appearance after being in hiding for several years.  It was certainly a night to remember, though I was terribly worried that the whole of Canadian literature (every living Canadian writer I had heard of, and then some, were standing on one stage to welcome Rushdie) could be wiped out by some mad person in the audience.  Happily it didn't happen.

Moments - New Paintings

I finished another three paintings in the Moments series and signed them a few days ago (which means they ARE finished!).  They are acrylic washes on canvas.  This one is entitled Together and is 36 cm x 37 cm.

This one I have entitled Flapper, and it is 56 cm x 36 cm.

This is entitled Army Dreamer (thank you for the title, Kate Bush!) and is also 56 cm x 36 cm.

Irish Wave, China

Last week Fion Gunn (the main organiser of Irish Wave) posted some photos to dropbox to give the artists involved in the various shows an idea of what the shows looked like -- I don't think too many of the artists were able to go to China for the launches. 

 I am glad my cow curtain was free hung so that one could walk around it.  I like the shots of people at the exhibition seen through my curtain.  Fion also set up a FaceBook page for Irish Wave, now listed on my sidebar.  She posted separate albums for each venue, and there are 39 photos of artwork in situ at the TuShanWan Art Museum, Shanghai (there were two shows there, Gather and ReMade).