Damsons & Blackberries!

We had a fantastic summer and we continue to have a fantastic autumn! Last Sunday and the Sunday before we had gone for afternoon family strolls in the woods up the side of Bray Head with the express purpose of collecting blackberries. Now there are plenty of pie-sized blackberry packages in the freezer for future use, and I made my first blackberry-apple pie of the season. Delicious with cream...

My husband and daughter kept spotting all the different types of mushrooms...

We don't know which ones are edible, but hopefully will find out soon as my husband is going on an organised foraging walk this Sunday with the experts.

I love mushrooms, but certainly am no fool. Every time I see mushrooms in the wild I am reminded of the film The Beguiled (starring Clint Eastwood and Geraldine Page) and the sorry ending Clint had...

Yesterday a rural friend invited my husband and I down to her place to enjoy the morning picking damsons. Her tree was the motherlode! My husband affixed a ladder to the tree and was wholeheartedly picking when our friend had a great idea...

...he could prune the tree and we could pick damsons at ground level!

We went home with a bushel of damsons and a few apples to complement blackberries in a soon-to-be-made pie. I've now got damsons stewing for jam, my husband has started several bottles of damson liqueur and is going to start some damson wine today. Oh halcyon days of autumn!

Sept 3 1995 - RIP Dad

It's been 19 years since my Dad passed away. Where did that time go? Dad is a presence in my life, most especially obvious in my love of music. My Dad was a musician (double bass and guitar) and a carpenter. Though I don't play any instruments, music is an important part of my life and I have always loved making things -- painting being my prime focus.

In 1996 my double installation exhibition in The Basement Gallery (Dundalk) entitled "Pastures Green and Dreaming for Dad" was both a memorial to my Dad and a celebration of life. After passing through two large painted curtains of calla-lilies in the smaller room, one encountered a small icon diptych. The curtains were set away from the wall in such a way that the lighting cast a great shadow. The curtains are each 226 cm x 162.5 cm, acrylic on polyester net curtain.

Calla Lilies Icon (Dreaming for Dad), mixed media on handmade paper, 17.5 cm x 25 cm (diptych).

Recently I came across a reference to William Shatner meeting a "sawyer" at a desert diner and wondering what that was. Well I had never heard the word in terms of someone who played the saw musically, but that was how it was explained to Bill...It reminded me, however, of my Dad and the day he bought me a lovely saw and then pulled out his bass bow and showed me that the saw could be played to produce an eerie sound.

Dad, mixed media on wood, 23 cm x 15.5 cm, 2009, collection of Tallie Whelan, Ireland.

Growing Up...For Elise

The other day my daughter was asking me questions about "growing up" and the perspective of an adult as opposed to a child. I don't think my responses were coherent, but it certainly got me thinking about the upcoming changes. Last night a parent-student meeting was held at my daughter's new school as she started secondary this week (in Ireland, secondary school starts after grade six is finished - there is no in-between transitions as there are in the public school system of Canada). Of course the years have gone by in the blink of an eye yet the memories and emotions relating to the my daughter's birth remain fresh. In 2005 my husband and I had a joint exhibition "For Elise" in honour of our daughter, with our work (my husband is a sculptor) inspired by her birth three years before and the new parenting experience for both of us. So here are a few images of some of my work included in that exhibition.

The two stripes of a positive pregnancy test made their way into a number of my paintings, including this one from 2004, "Positive", mixed media on paper, 15 cm x 23 cm.

 Pears, to me, are an appropriate symbol of fecundity. One of my aunt's had given me a bag of pears from her garden in 2000 before I was pregnant and I did a lot of drawings of them before eating! They also made their way into a lot of work at this time. This is "Worth the Wait III", mixed media on handmade paper, 17.5 cm x 25 cm, diptych, 2003.

"Good News I", mixed media on handmade paper, 17.5 cm x 25 cm, diptych, 2003.

"The Happiest Day II", mixed media on handmade paper, 17.5 cm x 25 cm, diptych, 2003.

One aspect of my work at the time looked at objects of my daughter's affection and I began painting her favourite toys. At 12 my daughter still adores her stuffies! "Mr Happy", mixed media on canvas, 30.5 cm x 25 cm, 2005.

Nicolas de Stael - Picasso Museum, Antibes

 I was in Antibes last week enjoying the company, hot weather and warm water of the beautful blue Mediterranean! I also had the chance to enjoy a visit to the gorgeous Picasso Museum at the Chateau Grimaldi. This year is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nicolas de Stael (born Jan 5 1914) whose work is well represented at the Picasso Museum. To mark the anniversary, there was a special exhibition "The Nude Figure, 1951-1955" which included work borrowed from other collections as well as works in the museum's own collection. This is a photo of de Stael in his studio, easily found with a google search. I especially love photos of artists in their studios!

This painting, "Portrait of Anne" was in the large exhibition entrance room (the one that contains the huge musical painting from the permanent collection - I posted a picture of it after last year's visit). De Stael had a daughter named Anne, but I do not know if this is a painting of her.

The second room of the exhibition contained a lot of large, minimal line drawings, ink on paper which I enjoyed looking at.

There was a smaller room with medium size charcoal drawings and line drawings.

I love the broad strokes of charcoal defining the figure by it's shadow only.

 "Reclining Nude, Blue" is in the permanent collection and usually on display whenever I am at the Picasso Museum. It is always a pleasure to see.

I wished that the catalogue to the exhibition had an English translation as there were a lot of images reproduced. Unfortunately only the introduction had been translated and flipping through it I could see that there was a fair amount of text!

Fever Afterimages - oilstick drawings

A few years ago - my concept of time is in fluxus, so who really knows how long ago it really was - one of my other artist sisters said she was only going to use materials she had to hand before she started buying new materials. With a studio full of, well, everything, I think this is a good idea but one I have not been good at sticking to. However, when I came across some card which I had prepared with gesso and an undercoat of paint some years ago, I thought the pieces would make a good base for some oilstick drawings. I located my large cookie tin of oilsticks, which I haven't looked at in some years. Oh good, they are still usable! So here is my drawing set-up, with the first of three prepared cards ready to exploit. My trusty jar of Swarfega gel hand-cleaner (green lidded red jar at left) has liquefied over the years but it still works a treat at the end of a drawing session!

I haven't yet given a title (other than "unitled") to these drawings which are part of my Fever Afterimages series.

All three drawings are oilstick and graphite on gessoed card.

44 cm length x 50 cm width.

Galway

Last week I found myself in Galway during the Arts Festival -- much surprised that I was able to get a place to stay at the last minute (my daughter is in the Connemara Gaeltacht an hour a way from Galway and begged for a parental visit!). Although I have been to Galway a number of times, I hadn't been to the festival since 1988. The weather was great, and it was a short and pleasant walk to the centre of town from the b&b in Salthill. One of the first things to catch my attention was a potter's market in the green area in front of this building with a mural on it. I was hoping for a food market as I was hungry, so didn't spend too much time exploring the potter's stalls.

Galway was hopping!

From a distance I thought this public sculpture by John Coll was a religious sculpture marking a church (St. John perhaps?). As I got closer I saw the boat and suspected the bird was an albatross so it more likely is to be associated with Galway Bay which it overlooks.

After finding a bite to eat (during which there was a rain shower) I made my way to Eyre Square (aka John F. Kennedy Park). I hadn't notice the Browne Doorway on previous visits to Galway. The doorway was taken from a mansion ruin and relocated to Eyre Square in 1905.

Also in Eyre Square is the steel fountain sculpture created by Eamon O'Doherty. The form of the sculpture recalls Galway hooker sailing ships.

The Tidal Series

Recently I came upon an image of Andrew Wyeth's painting "Christina's World", a painting I loved as soon as I saw it in New York on my first visit there in spring 1980. It was nice to be reminded of this painting and also to remember it's associations for me and effects on my own work.

In 1980 one of my sisters, her husband and young daughter were moving back to Ireland. In the week before they left I was minding my baby niece and did a sketch of us (by mirror) which I shortly thereafter turned into a painting, "Me & Jess". In this painting I was wearing my favourite outfit at the time, a turquoise skirt (with tiny Miro-like patterns on it!) and a red tank top.

This outfit later was a way of identifying myself in drawings, paintings and collages. After I finished my Fine Art degree in 1986 I was suddenly hit with a moment of insecurity about my future as an artist. After speaking to a friend about my lack of ideas and unsureness of where my art was going, I could not sleep and had a vision of a series of works which I later came to understand as transformation. I remember clearly leaping from my bed and gathering paper and pastels to furiously draw the images (at this time I was using both hands for drawing) before the idea disappeared.

In the first drawing (above) the figure is crawling to the water. This is the drawing which I associate with "Christina's World". In later drawings the figure encounters something in the water - her reflection, her spirit, her home - and becomes one with it before transforming into a red-sailed green boat, sailing through the firmament. This image of the boat often appeared in my dreams at the time, and was most definitely me. The image below is one of the later drawings, where I imagine some spinning happening and the yellow will later turn into stars.

I had planned to do a series of 27 paintings based on these drawings before I turned 28. I did 18 of the paintings, but never felt they had the same energy as the drawings, so abandoned the project as I began other work. I then got ready for my first move to Ireland (Aug 1988) and began my first "Great Purge" in which I destroyed quite a lot of my work and belongings, as I could not store or take everything with me. I did cut out one of the figures from one of the paintings, and that remains with me, in a corner on the wall in my attic.