The Source - book launch

During the past year or so, one of my joys has been to watch artist talks via zoom when live, or later via YouTube when available. An artist himself, Alan Keane recognised the desire of other artists to see what their peers (known and known) were up to during the pandemic and decided to host a series of live but remote video interviews with artists in their studios. The interviews were held weekly on a Saturday morning for about an hour, during which the artist would give a virtual tour of their studio, talk about their practice and be open to a Q & A. While I was only able to attend one event live, it was a brilliant format, and I am so glad the sessions are available on Keane's YouTube Channel, here.

In another recognition of this being such a valuable resource of living Irish artists, Keane turned the series into a beautiful book "The Source". Both the book title and the series title are a deep nod to creative inspiration. I attended the book launch at the United Arts Club in Dublin a few days ago, and was so delighted to meet Mr Keane and to collect my copy of the book.

I don't know if anyone was watching, but I certainly obtained some olfactory satisfaction by opening the book and taking a good sniff! The book is absolutely beautiful, two pages devoted to each guest from the series - a written page with artist bio, statement & portrait and QR code (to directly lead to the YouTube video of the individual) and a lush, full-colour page of the artist's work. The contents page gives a full roster of participants (over 50) at varying stages of their careers, including some very well-known artists.

I had only heard about The Artist's Well series because I saw a notice for an upcoming event with Eamon Colman. Eamon had been a good friend of mine last century but we lost touch over the years, so I was intent on seeing the live event on the Saturday. It was such a pleasure to see him again - and his work! - that I made a point of renewing our acquaintance and headed to Thurles, Co Tipperary to see his recent exhibition, Into The Mountain, there and meet him again. I blogged about it here.

Though most of the guests on The Artist's Well were visual artists, Keane did not confine his interviews to this one form. In fact there are also several gallerists, a musician, a singer and a writer included. Olivier Cornet owns and operates the Olivier Cornet Gallery in Dublin and it was totally fascinating to hear him talk about setting up in Ireland, the artists whom he represents in his stable and his own interests in inter-disciplinary explorations (for example, theming group shows as a response to a specific poem).

At the launch I was hoping I would become reacquainted with a number of artists whose videos I had seen and met years before on one occasion or another. However, due to covid restrictions, I could not stay long at launch and did not get the chance to re-meet some past acquaintances (who may have arrived after I had left). One such artist is Niamh O'Connor who I had the pleasure to meet when we were both involved in the Jack and Jill Foundation's fundraiser "The Big Egg Hunt, Dublin" back in 2013. (I did a few blogs about it back then here, here, here, here, here, here and here!)

At the book launch, Alan Keane assured me that Series 2 of The Artist's Well was due to start in a few weeks. Looking forward to that!

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.

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.