Maritime Alps - finished!

By the end of last week I had finished "Maritime Alps" the triptych I have been working on. I think it is the last painting of the "Moments" series for now, as I have had some other work percolating in my head for at least a year, which is a definite departure from this series.

Maritime Alps, mixed media on kraft paper, approx 220 cm x 267 cm triptych, 2014.

Here are some details which show the drawing I did on top of the painting. The drawing is done with a black china marker. 

The signature is towards the bottom of the right panel. This is the first completed work of 2014.

To give a better idea of scale, here I am with the completed painting.

Maritime Alps - still in progress

Still working on my triptych, Maritime Alps. It is coming along nicely - here are some more details which show the progress. This is a detail of the figure on the left panel.

Below is a detail of the figure on the right panel'

This is a detail of the rocks on the right panel. I like Oscar Wilde showing up from the newsprint under the yellow paint (in the top third of this detail).

Maritime Alps - details

I am enjoying being back to work on the triptych I started before breaking for Christmas. I thought I would post a few in progress details. This is a closeup of an area of foreground rock with sea behind.

The background mountains and the top of the mother figure's head.

A detail of the mother figure reaching for her young son on the rocks.

And a detail of the other two climbing figures, where the view of the landscape is still apparent.

Of course, it has all changed (though not "utterly") as these are pictures from yesterday and I was up in the studio painting this morning! Happy days!

Doing and Making!

My colleague at the office is teaching a number of us how to crochet during lunches. For Christmas she most generously made and gave each of her students a beautiful bookmark (mine is centre, light green and pink). I have started on the next project, a small tote bag -- the rich green circles are my work. The items are laid out on the beautiful purple shawl one of my sisters made for me a number of years ago, and the sparkly purple earring was also made for me by the same sister. When making a Christmas stocking for my daughter I utilised the fine crochet work of my grandmother; originally this was trim for a set of pillow cases (which have long since disintegrated being made close to a hundred years ago!)

I made a list of all the people I wanted to make books for this year and started to work. I would not call this a production line, but while I was preparing paper for one book, I just did the tearing for the rest! I am making both leather and "eco" books (ready-made covers from recycled packaging cardboard!). I have two leather books completed.

And hurray! I have been back up in the studio painting my triptych friend "Maritime Alps" which has been so patient over the Christmas holiday period. This was the progress as of last week.

Inspired by Eileen Gray

In the spring of 1980 I went to New York for the first time as part of the school trip while in second year of Central Technical School's 3-Year Special Post Secondary Art Course. Visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art was a fantastic experience and there was a major exhibition of the work of Eileen Gray. The exhibition showed examples of all types of work: paintings, drawings, architecture, photography and furniture design. I remember being amazed by her painted furniture and screens especially. I had an old DIY set of drawers that had been passed down to me by one of my sisters and that summer decided it needed some freshening up. Althought somewhat battered by my frequent moves (especially in the 80s) I still have the set of drawers with irises painted on them. Here is a detail. The irises are based on the variety which grew at the side of the porch at the house in Toronto where I grew up.

Before my daughter was born, my husband found an old cabinet in a skip that he thought we might make use of. I cleaned and painted the tulip and rose rain cabinet (middle) in the 2001, adding a new wooden knob. We bought a changing mat and it became the changing table for our new baby in 2002, with storage for diapers, cream, wet ones, etc. It is now the end table by her bed with lamp on top and lego and DS games and paraphernalia inside. The pink and buttercup drawers (right) were a very tired dressing table, given to me from a neighbour. I again added new wooden knobs and removed the mirror before painting. The purple daisy locker (left) was part of a bedroom suite that my older brother gave me in 2002 when he was updating his own furniture. He had seen my painted furniture and knew I would turn it into something when I had a chance. I must have painted it while my daughter was napping, it is dated 2003!

A few years later I had a chance to paint the clover cabinet/dressing table for my daughter. Again this originally was a very dull piece of furniture, part of the suite given to me by my brother (thanks Bro!).

The ash berry wardrobe was the last piece from the suite, painted for my daughter in 2008.

My husband lowered the hanging bar and added another shelf before I painted the inside.

With no more furniture to paint, I happily took part in The Big Egg Hunt Dublin a year ago, and had another irregular 3-dimensional surface to paint on! The event was a fund-raiser for children's charity The Jack and Jill Foundation, and my egg was part of the auction. It now resides in IBM Legal Services in Dublin!

Eileen Gray at IMMA

After being closed for renovations at least a year, IMMA re-opened last October with what was touted as a spectacular and comprehensive exhibition of work by Eileen Gray. I came across an exhibition of Gray's work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on my first art-school visit to New York in 1980, and was incredibly inspired by her work so I was looking forward to this exhibition. I was getting anxious as the closing date was drawing near (next week!) but finally found the time yesterday after attending a site meeting in the morning. While the exhibition was "comprehensive" in that it included information on all aspects of her work -- architecture, collage, carpet design, furniture design, photography, painting and lacquer work it actually seemed very dry. I was disappointed, not in the work, but in the curation. The National Museum has an extensive archive of Eileen Gray letters and photographs, many of which were borrowed for this exhibition. Rather than supporting the objects it seemed that the objects were supporting the archival documents. There was a disconnect between the viewer and the work. For instance, the beautiful lacquer screen below was displayed in a glass-fronted solid box totally defeating the purpose of the screen! Gray had designed this divider screen specifically so that what was on the other side of the divider could still be glimpsed. The layout of the IMMA exhibition space is such that the screen could have easily been accommodated by displaying between rooms (many of which were divided by ropes anyway so that you had to go out to the hall to get into another room!). As the view of all 3 dimensional items was limited to one perspective, I thought there was a severe lack of imagination on the curator's part. I distinctly remember being able to walk around large pieces of furniture and screens at the exhibition in New York.

Again, the asymmetrical cupboard below was roped off with the wall directly behind so the audience got a straight, head on view only . The didactic said the cork drawers were lined with silver leaf. I would have liked to see it, not just read about it!

It was a pleasure to see some of the tiny collage/paintings which reminded me of Kasimir Malevich's work. It was easy to understand how Gray developed her interest in carpet design and I was glad to see some completed carpets in this exhibition.

This very vibrant screen was NOT in the Dublin exhibition, but it seemed familiar, so maybe I saw it in New York. The funny thing about being inspired by Eileen Gray in 1980 was that I had no idea that she was Irish -- born in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford the town where my mosaic panel "Gorse" resides at the Enniscorthy Community Hospital. The Metropolitan still has her listed as a British artist, so perhaps that is a reason why I did not realise she is was Irish till about 10 years ago.

Happy New Year!

In the last few hours of 2013, I am patting myself on the back for keeping up my resolutions of last December: I started this blog, set up a facebook page, got involved in the charity fundraiser Big Egg Hunt Dublin, read a slew of books, re-booted my dream journal, and kept up a daily notes journal (suggested by, you guessed it, Austin Kleon in Steal Like an Artist!). While I plan to keep up everything from last year, and of course keep painting, I am planning to start work on my writing again. It has been a long while since I have actually set pen to paper to work on prose or poetry but it has always been in the background niggling at me. I have another list of books which are waiting for my eyes, and with the recent acquisition of a large piece of black leather, I have at least 5 gift books to make. Recently a woman at the office where I work part time, has kindly and patiently begun teaching a group of us how to crochet on our lunch breaks. So I will be starting a new crochet project in the new year too! 2014 will be another exciting and busy year and I would like to wish everyone a happy, healthy and safe New Year!

The Gift

As I am busy wrapping presents and making preparations for the big day, one week away, of course I am also thinking of other things. I have had a good year, in fact a good 20 something years -- we recently had our twentieth anniversary of being settled here in Ireland! Although I lived here previously, I did the usual (for my family) back and forthing between here and Toronto as I tried to make a decision on the best place for me. I arrived once again on these shores in December 1993, but this time not alone but with my future husband, James. 

Since I have been putting up images of some drawings as I digitise them, I thought it appropriate that I also celebrate this painting, The Gift, based on one of the dream drawings. I remember this took me several years to complete, but was finally signed in 1987. I know this piece still exists as it very happily hangs in my bedroom.

People of the Great Journey

At the end of November I went to Galway for the launch of my sister O.R. Melling's latest novel People of the Great Journey. I picked up a copy for myself there, and now have chance to start reading it, since I have just finished HHhH (by Laurent Binet, an amazing book!).

Here is Melling reading a short but enticing excerpt from the book. Looking on is Celtic Studies maestro Professor Dáibhí O'Cróinín who officially launched the book at Charlie Byrne's Bookshop.

Dream Drawings Part 2 c 1985/86

The following images are more transfers from slide to digital. They were a further development on my left hand dream drawings, done while I was at York University in Toronto under the tutelage of sculptor Hugh Leroy. I can only generally date them from the setting in the dreams so I figured around 1985 and/or 1986 (my last year of uni). I had a big batch of standard 26" x  40"  cartridge paper that I used for my drawings; the following drawings are done in chalk pastel. The dream below clearly takes place in my batchelor apartment on Kingston Rd. in Scarborough, with a depiction of one of my large diptych paintings in the background, surrounded by my beloved stereo & Boston Acoustic speakers (100 watt per side!), records and a dead baby. This was a very sad dream, despite the fair going on outside the window, and I later associated it with the death of my soul. This is the first instance that I recall of me using the figure in the red top and green skirt to represent myself. I later used elements of this dream in my poem "Portrait", published in The Sunday Times New Irish Writing in 1989.

"The Blood Bears Fruit"  - some very obvious but intense imagery in this dream!

"The Second Coming: Evil"  - I remember this nightmare began as a calm moment and then all hell broke loose.

"The Second Coming: Good"  - and this one began with a lot of chaos and running through corridors until I came upon The Virgin of the Rocks -- safety and calm.

"The Water Meets the Bluff"  - although I remember this was a confusing dream, it had very specific imagery and colour (like the more saturated colour between the shadow of two branches on the sand and the change of colour in the water where the figure is about to dive).

New Triptych - Maritime Alps

 I have been working on a new triptych, again taking up a large part of the north wall in my attic studio. I worked out the composition in white chalk on kraft paper and then started gluing newsprint on the rock and mountain areas to create some texture before I started painting. This is a detail of two of the climbing figures.

And here is a detail of the child figure at the far right of the triptych.

This is a detail of the reaching mother figure.

I started off painting with some blue, the water around the rocks and behind the figures leading to the mountains in the distance. The mountains in the distance are the Maritime Alps, the painting inspired by our visits to Antibes. While I was painting I was thinking of the work of Betty Goodwin, specifically her figures in water which I admired greatly in the 1980s and of Jean Charles Blais, whose work I first came across this summer at the Picasso Museum in Antibes.

I keep referring to the painting as Maritime Alps, so I am sure this name will stick. I like it - not just for the mountains in the background, but for the figures climbing the mountain of rocks. With the xmas season soon to be in full swing, I am not expecting to get a lot of work done on this in the coming weeks, but the painting will look at me every time I go up to the attic, so it will stay in my thoughts.

Xmas preparations begin!

I have been very busy this past week or so! I started the new triptych (next post?) but I have also been busy preparing for xmas and other events coming soon.

I did a large batch of apricot-pineapple jam with almonds. I have been making this jam for xmas presents since 1983, I think. Actually, I only started adding in the almonds for excitement about 15 years ago. I have to source more paraffin though, as I used the last I had on these non-mason jars. I will make up the cranberry-clementine with brazil nut jam when I can get hold of cranberries.

I also made some puddings, a few people get them as gifts too.

Another event is coming up, so I have set out to make another gift book. This is a picture of all the prepared pieces; I started sewing the signatures to the leather cover last night, so expect to be finished that before the weekend is out.

Dream Drawings - Part 1 c 1984/85

I was working on transferring my old slides to newer media and am still interested in these dream drawings. At the time I remember I was very frustrated with my drawing skills which seemed to be deteriorating in the environment of York University, Toronto, where I was doing my Degree in Fine Art (at least that is where the blame fell!). My mentor & drawing professor, sculptor Hugh LeRoy, suggested that I draw with my left hand and channel my subconscious. I enjoyed taking his advice as I was developing my interest in dreams and the psyche. I did these charcoal drawings on standard white 26" x 40" drawing paper.

I remember this as an alarming dream, as the dog bit my hand off when I went to pet it!

Song.

Greed.

Offering.

Refusal.

The Gift. (I later did a painting based on this drawing.)

 I don't actually know if these drawings still exist or not! They may have ended up in a portfolio that escaped the second Great Purge of 1993 and simply be up in my attic, or they may have met their doom back then...

Tree Kids - painting finished!

I finished the triptych sometime before Hallowe'en. I had been thinking it would be difficult to take down, but hadn't a bother last night. Today I will roll it up and who knows when it will see the light of day again! I really enjoyed the time spent doing this painting, and have stayed with my initial title "Tree Kids". It is mixed media on paper, approx 220 cm x 267 cm triptych, 2013.

Here is a detail of a wellie on the tree.

And a detail of the face of the adult "kid".

A detail of limbs and leaves!

Tree and sky detail.

My signature on the bottom right corner of the triptych.

And just to give a sense of scale, me with the finished painting.