Knockeen - big painting in progress

Although I had planned to have the big painting, Knockeen, finished by the end of June, I realised there were a lot of details that I wanted to add. I began the painting in February of this year and have been working on it steadily since then. To see the painting progress from its beginnings till now, check out earlier blogs here, here and here. I still want to keep my painting loose and I extended my personal deadline to concentrate entirely on some details. For instance, I wanted to define some of the leafy areas arouond the wild rose petals.

And though I have no intention of painting every leaf on the fuschia bushes, I want a few leaves to stand out, so I sketched some in.

Here are more leaves getting a bit more definition.

I also wanted the blackberry leaves to be more definitive and used several different green mixes to make them so.

This is just another detail showing how the wild rose leaves differ from the blackberry leaves.

While not finished I am happy with the way things are looking with this painting and am continuing to concentrate on finalising some details. This painting will be one of those featured in Memory Is My Homeland, my exhibition of paintings and prints at Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin next spring (mid-Feb to the end of March 2022). In 2019 I discussed the concept of the work for this exhibition here and the beginnings of this project here.

A Short Walk to Fort Carré - in progress

Towards the end of my studio residency at Signal Arts Centre in 2018, I created a number of drawings based on my many visits to Antibes. The size of the drawings corresponded to the size of my lino blocks and I had the intention of returning to these images during my planned studio residency the following year, i.e., in 2019. My focus for the residency at Signal last Autumn was printmaking and bookbinding, and it was relatively easy for me to return to the Antibes drawings of the previous year. I prepared them and transferred the drawings to the lino blocks.

Each plate was carefully cut, and I decided that the connection between the images, while specific to Antibes, was more exactly descriptive of a short observational walk between the apartment where I usually stay in the South of France and Fort Carré.

The images consisted of flora en route, Vauban Harbour, and a corner of the fort itself. My end plan is to make a small edition of prints and bind them in a portfolio.

 I did a number of test prints using black ink. This enabled me to see if any additional cutting needed to be done on the lino plate.

I tried a number of colours before I decided on final tones for the series. I was delighted to be able to borrow a small printer to create the prints. I made a heavy card "window" for the lino blocks to sit in

so the press would not have to deal with the high relief of a lino block.

I have chosen the prints and decided their order of the eight images to reflect A Short Walk to Fort Carré. In the end I was not satisfied with the image of Port Vauban or a zoom shadow, so they will not be bound in this portfolio, in its edition of three.