Black & White

The facebook page of the Museum of Modern Art informed me that it was Franz Kline's birthday a few days ago, and of course posted a picture of one of his paintings to celebrate. It reminded me of how much I like this painter's work. In general, I have a love for the painterliness of Abstract Expressionism and I think it leaks into my own work, figurative or abstract.

Here is another Franz Kline black and white painting. Is it completely abstract or is it a figure standing on a bridge? Actually, I was taught that "abstract" means "taken from" which is completely different from "non-objective" work that aspires more to music (such as the paintings of Wassily Kandinsky).

The elegy series of Robert Motherwell are another group of abstract paintings using mostly black and white to great effect.

In 1984 I was on holiday in Ireland, visiting my parents, so I was using the minimalist palette of black and white to created postcard size self-portraits. In fact I used old postcards acquired from the local shop of one of my aunts. These two pieces from the series were included in a retrospective show in Wicklow County Buildings in 2005, "Coming of Age: Work from the Past 25+ Years".

I had previously painted a few large pieces (3' x 4') of figures in relation to the canvas solely in black and white, but only the small self portraits have survived from this time period.

At the time, among my music choices was The Stranglers including this song from their album Black & White, "In the Shadows".

I revisited the minimal palette in the early naughties with "There She Goes" a large multi-panelled painting on card. The card panels were painted first with my signature magenta background, which is always allowed to peep through subsequent layers of paint. This piece too was exhibited in the Coming of Age exibition in 2005.

While I love bright colours in my paintings (browns never get a look in), there is also something about the possibilities of limitations which is fascinating. Last year I was completely taken with the Jean Charles Blais exhibition that I saw in Antibes, most expecially the black and white figure paintings.

Spring in Wicklow - Kilmacurragh

Spring is definitely here, hurray! The last few days have been beautifully sunny and the plants are just loving it. I have been watching the pink blossoms on the tree outside my house get more abundant with each passing day and I am looking forward to "petal pollution" by the end of the month. Saturday required a return visit to the National Botanic Gardens at Kilmacurragh, about a half hour drive south of here (Bray). The snowdrops were in abundance.

Though the trees are slow to bud, the daffodils were happily looking around.

and so were the gorgeous purple - and the odd white - crocii. There were some low ropes along some footpaths, new since last time we were at Kilmacurragh, and I thought they might just be for temporary protection of these growing wildflowers.

I think this is probably not that unusual sight but seeing an artist painting en plein air is idyllic nonetheless. I did not want to disturb the artist at work, so never found out if it was a man or woman; despite the day that was in it, the air was still pretty chilly and the artist was well wrapped up for outdoor painting!

Kilmacurragh has only recently been taken over by the National Botanic Gardens, so it is still a hidden treasure: I think I saw the painter and 3 other people there. There was a poster for rhododendron walks every Sunday in March and there are a lot of trees on the property. I could see that all the rhododendrons were in bud, but this one tearaway section of a budding tree was in full bloom!

Kilmacurragh Trees

National Heritage Week is an event celebrated annually in Ireland, this year taking place August 17 - 25. We usually go to one of the events (which are listed online), and this year I saw that the Botanic Gardens had a satellite garden in Kilmacurragh, Wicklow which was having a family day. Looking at the map it seemed to be just a half hour drive south of us, so we planned a picnic if the day was fine. And a fine day it was! The park was beautiful, with a pond, picnic area surrounded by grazing hills and avenues of trees. Kilmacurragh was formerly a big house estate (with the hulk of the big house still on the property - awaiting redevelopment is my guess) bought by the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin a few years ago. I think "family day" consisted of a tour around the gardens, but we opted to do our own free nature walk. I think this gnarly old tree is a yew, but am not too sure...

Here is another view of the same tree.

Walking through an avenue of rhododendron, I came across this old tree whose trunk reminded me of an elephant's leg. There was another one nearby, so I half expected to see a prehistoric elephant among the foliage. Happily I didn't!

I particularly liked this tree with the ropey vines all over it. At the moment I think these gardens at Kilmacurragh are a hidden gem, but won't be for long since I keep telling people about how great they are! There is a dedicated meadow of wild flowers and the rhododendron avenues will look glorious in the spring - I am looking forward to a return visit when everything is blooming.