exhibition launch

Last Thursday evening the launch of Memory Is My Homeland took place at Rathfarnham Castle. I had been given the go-ahead to send out invites for a cautious launch as covid restrictions had been lifted only a few weeks beforehand. So it was with some delight that I was able to approach the Castle at dusk.

The  exhibition was officially launched by the Canadian Ambassador, Her Excellency Ms Nancy Smyth (left), with introductory words from Ms Ellen Brickley (right) from the OPW National Historic Properties.

As it has been only a few weeks since covid restrictions have eased, the launch itself was cautious and everyone kept to safety guidelines (social distancing and mask-wearing).

There was a pretty reasonable turnout of guests as people are learning to socialise again! There was wonderful catering (canapés and wine) so of course people could remove masks when eating & drinking, and there was seating scattered in the various rooms so that there were opportunities for people to relax and chat.

I was available to discuss my work with both the Ambassador and Ms Brickley.

Of course, I had some opportunities to greet my friends and guests. This picture encapsulates my main reason for wanting to exhibit at Rathfarnham Castle: the historic walls and gorgeous architecture of the venue!

 

In the Saloon the painting details on the ceiling reflect the period of time in the early 20th century when the castle was owned by the Jesuits.

The Pistol Loop Room provided an intimate space for my linoprints on handmade silk fibre sheets.

There were three false walls, at angles to each other, which provided the surface on which to hang my unique prints.

Back in the large Dining Room, I had a photo opportunity with the Ambassador and my painting, Kingston Road: Waiting.

exhibition install day!

A busy start to the week for me, as my exhibition Memory Is My Homeland  opens to the public on Wednesday (Feb 16). The Canadian Ambassador to Ireland, Her Excellency Ms Nancy Smyth is launching the exhibition on Thursday evening. It will be the first launch that Rathfarnham Castle has had over the past two years (because of covid) and will be a small affair, but celebratory. So on Sunday evening everything was wrapped and packed into the car for an early start the next day.

Rathfarnham Castle is an Elizabethan era fortified home 

surrounded by a pleasant park. Although the skies were grey, I was glad that there was no rain to be seen, especially while we unpacked the car.

The false walls had been freshly painted and most were already dry, so work could begin immediately.

As the walls in the dining room weren't completely dry, we started in the saloon.

I was expecting just one other person to assist my husband and I in the hanging, but a fabulous team of OPW carpenters and electricians arrived to carry out the work.

I simply had to place the work where it was be to be hung and talk to the carpenters about placement height and space between works.  Once the work was hung, the electrician adjusted the lighting to my specifications and the painter touched up any areas that had pencil marks.

Everything was done before lunch! Before we left we checked out one of the exhibition signs that had been hung up on the fence between the castle and the carpark. For further information and pictures related to this body of work, do a search on this blog for Memory Is My Homeland.

Pearse medal

 I was at the lovely Pearse Museum again last year, specifically to see an art exhibition from the OPW Collection (which I blogged about here), but it is always nice to have a gander around the museum itself, which is dedicated to the Irish hero. The museum is situated in the boys' school that Patrick Pearse founded early last century at St Enda's Park (a gorgeous park to wander around). Seeing the image plaque again reminded me that I knew there was an error of some sort in the commemorative medal that I had at home, which had been given to me when my Mum died a few years ago.

When I got home I had a good look at the medal, which was commemorating Pearse having been born 100 years previously.

On the reverse side of the coin is an excerpt from the speech Pearse made at the graveside of O'Donovan Rossa in 1915, which is credited to being seminal to the Easter Uprising the following year. A member of the language police that I am, I spotted the spelling error on this commemorative medal. "Finian" is a boy's name, in his speech Pearse referred to the "Fenian" dead. Fenian refers to the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), the secret political organisation of the late 19th-early 20th century that was dedicated to the establishment of an independant Ireland. I wonder how many of these medals were made for the commemoration and if anyone else is a trainspotter?

In Trust. In Gratitude. In Hope. Group exhibition at Arthouse, Stradbally

 I did a road trip recently to check out the exhibition In Trust. In Gratitude. In Hope. in Stradbally, Co Laois. The exhibition was organised by Laois Arts Office and curated by Monica Flynn to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Stradbally's Arthouse Gallery. Over sixty artists were asked to respond to Pat Boran's commissioned poem The Window Seat. As my husband, James Hayes, had been commissioned ten years ago to create the sculptural wall piece, Growth, when the gallery was being built, he was invited to take part in the exhibition. Growth, a stainless steel work, can be seen to the left in the picture below; it is in the courtyard entrance to the gallery.

Within the small, but very elegant, gallery James's bronze sculpture, Faith, can be seen with Growth outside the window.

The artists were asked to respond in any way to Pat Boran's poem but there was a size limit on both 2D & 3D works. Artists working in 2D were provided with a square canvas. There is a screening room within the complex (which also includes studio spaces and units to accommodate a live-in artist-in-residency programme) and there were also two video pieces included in the exhibition.

The other artists who were invited to take part had all been involved with Arthouse over the ten years of its existence, most through the residency programme.

The works were as diverse as the individual artists, but the show was cohesive through the ideas of response to the poem and through the size constraints.

The main gallery is quite small but the space is augmented by the running wall immediately outside it, which leads to the screening room. This corridor is very bright and in no way secondary, with full length windows opposite the running wall. The exhibition continues till March 25th 2022.

December (2021) selfies & goodbye studio!

 It seems so long ago now, but it was just last month that I finished my studio residency at Signal Arts Centre. (Do a search on this blog for other work done, both this year and previous years, during this residency.) As was my daily practice while at Signal, I did self-portrait sketches as a warm-up exercise. Though by the beginning of December I had already brought most supplies home, I made sure to keep my cookie tin of materials for the selfie sketches. For this one I used a soft charcoal pencil.

When working with watercolour for selfie sketches, I like to limit myself to three colours, blocking in the colour first and then using a watercolour pencil to define a few lines.

After drawing in the basics of my face with watercolour pencil for this sketch, I decided to highlight my festive earrings. I have different daily festive earrings to wear in the month of December!

I got into the habit of doing a blind contour drawing every Friday while in the Signal studio, so this was my very last selfie sketch of 2021.

After packing the last few things to bring home and a quick tidy up, I turned to the studio for one last look before closing and locking the door. I left the table coverings for the next resident.

collage cards

One of my visual activities during my studio residency at Signal Arts Centre was replenishing my supply of collage cards, which are always handy to have around for those special occasions or short correspondences. So when packing items to bring down to the studio, I made sure to include a supply of card stock, pva glue, glue stick and a folder full coloured paper scraps and bits of paper that I thought I would make use of. 

The first group of cards were simply based on a recent painting from the Memory Is My Homeland series. Florence Road: Butterfly Wall can be seen here and information on both the work for Memory Is My Homeland and the past four years of autumn residencies at Signal Arts Centre can be easily searched for on this blog.

As is my usual practice, I make several collage cards at a time with variations on a theme. The same but different!

Last summer I did a major clearout of books and magazines. I have been a subscriber to Aramco World for at least 20 years now (it is similar to National Geographic but with a focus on the promotion of understanding between Western and Muslim cultures). Before putting the magazines in the bin to be recycled, however, I meticulously went through each issue in order to rescue recipes (included in most issues) and colour images for later use. Some of these images made excellent background patterns for collage cards.

Here are a number of floral cards I made. At home my xmas cactus was blooming so I had done a few sketches in preparation for collages. The iris and wild rose are meaningful stand-bys for me.

I created another group of collage cards with the chimneys and wires motif that I haven't fully explored in my work.

Of course Fort Carré found it's way into the new collage cards - with the studio feeling positively wintry some days I can't help but reminisce with myself about the south of France! I haven't been to Antibes since 2018...

The last collage cards I made at the Signal studio are based on a photo I took of a rainbow and tree outside my house.

All Creatures Great and Small - exhibition at Rathfarnham Castle

I was at Rathfarnham Castle last week for some discussions about my own upcoming exhibition, Memory Is My Homeland, but I also had the opportunity to view the current exhibition, All Creatures Great and Small.

This is a group exhibition, curated by Jacquie Moore (Art Adviser for the OPW), from both the Office of Public Works (OPW) and the Northern Ireland Dept. of Finance collections.

There is a huge variety of work and media within the show. Each piece features an animal or insect though each artist has treated this subject matter in a unique way. For instance, one piece by John Kindness (he has two prints in the show) is a humorous double portrait etching of a rubber duck, suggesting both its outward and inward - skeletal - appearance.

I enjoyed seeing Kindness's other print (etching & aquatint), Big Fish, because it reminds me of visiting Belfast and seeing his huge public sculpture, Salmon of Knowledge (The Big Fish).

I love that the print has the same "feel" as the big sculpture, a colourful, huge, three-dimensional mosaic. While obviously the print is not "huge" there are details of print that it shares with the large sculpture, which are only recognisable on both artworks with close examination.

The Pistol Loop room is an intimate space where each work can be viewed closely on its own or within the group of neighbouring work

There are three false walls in the Pistol Loop room, which nicely converse with each other.

Last but not least, there was one lone surprise print (etching) in the grand Dining Room. Colin Martin's Dog (Motion Capture) beckons to the viewer on entering the room. There is plenty of humour here: I was wondering what on earth the dog could be wearing, then realised (by the title) what it was and indeed this dog - normally in constant motion - has been "captured" in stillness, on the wall, in a moment in time. It stands on the verge of motion.

This show continues until the end of January and there is a free full-colour catalogue accompanying the exhibition.