Laois County Collection on Show

The Laois County Collection is on show for 1 month at the Arthouse in Stradbally

The List of Artists and Dates

Perpetual, the piece I have in the collection.

Painting in Birr Exhibition

Last week Common Ground 2013 opened in the Birr Theatre and Arts Centre, The shows theme is New Beginnings. The piece I got into the exhibition was this one...

The exhibition runs until January and here's a link to the gallerys website - Birr Theatre and Arts Centre

Painting in Laois County Collection

After the Excursion exhibition ran it's course at The Arthouse in Stradbally, Laois County Council bought one of the paintings off me for the County Collection, it's the first piece of work that I've gotten into a collection, and it was the first painting I started in Iceland just over a year ago that the bought. Here it is.

    Perpetual, 2013

The New Paintings

It's after taking me a while to upload images of my new paintings, I just got them back from the gallery last Tuesday and I've been really busy with the MFA and commuting but here's some of them. I haven't uploaded all of them. There's one that I made some adjustments to and haven't documented it since, there's one that I got a photo of but I wasn't happy with the shot and there's 2 that I need to photograph.

    Forgotten, 2013

    Isolation, 2013

                             Overwatch, 2013

    Perpetual, 2013

    Motivations, 2013

    Overflow, 2013

    Obstruction, 2013

Work in Portlaoise

Last Thursday (24th of October) an exhibition opened in the Store Yard in Portlaoise. I had 2 drawings in it. It's just up for the week and 20% of sales goes toward helping the Laois Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Here are the 2 drawings I had in the exhibition:

Overflow, 2013

Sprawling, 2013

Work in New York

Last week See.Me Creatives Rising opened in New York. It was a digital exhibition where artists work was projected on various buildings around the city. The piece that was projected from my work was this one. The work was also shown on monitors at the See.Me Project Space.

Midlands Arts and Culture Magazine Issue 20 Winter 2013

This was a bit of a surprise to see on Culture Night, I remember doing the write up but didn't realize or had forgotten that the Laois Arts Council were putting it into the Midlands Arts and Culture Magazine. It was just a summary of my 3 months in Iceland.

Culture Night 2013

I gave a talk on Culture Night at the Arthouse in Stradbally. There was a nice crowd, not huge but a an alright turnout. I was happy enough, I wouldn't be terribly confident talking in front of a crowd. The talk just covered the 3 months in Iceland and the new work. There was a good lot of people in prior to the talk so I was happy with that because most of them were faces that I didn't see at the opening of Excursion and thankfully there was more positive feedback direct towards all of the paintings.

I'll upload the Culture Night 2013 Laois brochure during the week

Some of the New Work

I have some other new work on the go along with the paintings, some of it's scattered over the blog in other posts but I have it here together in one place. I'll be posting the paintings up here shortly. Until then though you can see some of the new painting here on Facebook and the drawings and digital work below. These are also on my Facebook page.

Digital Illustrations

    Double Click, 2013

    Scroll Down, 2013

    Point, 2013

Drawings

                                     Bubble, 2013

                                            Last Stand, 2013

                                        Overflow, 2013

                                         Sprawl, 2013

Facebook Page

I just set up a Facebook page for my work. I'll be updating it with pictures of the work in the exhibition, Excursion, gradually over the next few weeks along with anything new that I do.

If you want you can give the page a like over here.

One of the digital pieces I have over on Facebook -

'Double Click'

New Solo Exhibition - Excursion

Thursday night, the 5th of September, my new new solo exhibition opened at the Arthouse Gallery in Stradbally, Co. Laois. It's a show of work that began last summer in Iceland and has continued to grow over the course of the past year.

The opening went really well, There was a really good crowd at the launch and I heard that some people had been in the day before the opening night and were spreading good things by word of mouth about the exhibition. The exhibition was officially launched by friend, artist and former tutor Jock Nichol. There was plenty of positive feedback from Jock, Assistant Laois Arts Officer Bridie Keenan and the viewers at the Arthouse. I'll be posting images of the paintings later on when the exhibition closes on October 4th.

Between now and then though I'm getting ready for a presentation I'm giving in the gallery on Culture Night (September 20th).

Below is a copy of the invitation to the exhibition and at the bottom is the press released featured in the Leinster Express.

Work in Bray

I got a piece into the first annual Signal Arts Centre Open Exhibition in Bray, Co. Wicklow. It opens tonight. I'm not sure how long it runs for, I'll post that up when I find out. I was delighted though.

Here's the work that got into the exhibition -

               Overflow,

               Ink and Acrylic on Paper,

               37cm x 34cm,

               2013.

This was a piece I did a while back, I've done some works similar to it since. I wanted to play around with pointillism because I'd never tried it before. A few of the people that have seen it thought it was carborundum print, but it's just a 0.05 mm fineliner and thinned down acrylic paint.   

Solo Exhibition Update

I'm closing in on the target number of paintings, I made a bit of a mess of one last night and despite trying to fight with it admitted defeat but I have it restarted today and I'm feeling happier about it.

The exhibition itself - It's still down for the 5th of September, it's titled Excursion, I'm looking at between 10 and 12 paintings for the show, I'm giving a talk on the 20th of September and the show runs until the 4th of October.

I was originally meant to be giving the talk on the 7th of September, but we decided to have it instead on the 20th which is Culture Night, so I'm happy with that. Culture Night is a really busy date in Ireland for the Arts and because of that the Arthouse are expecting a good crowd around the gallery because there are several events taking place that night.

Here's the link to the Arthouse - Solo Exhibition at The Arthouse

Some of the Older Work

I probably should have posted this up back in January but I suppose better late than never. I need to renew my website account so I haven't uploaded much to it lately so I'm going to put up some of the older stuff here and I'll upload the newer work in the Autumn this year once the solo exhibition has finished.

All the work below is from 2011/2012. Work stopped on these in May 2012 because I spent a fair bit of time on workshops and then at the end of May went to Iceland for 3 months where I started the new paintings. When I was going I didn't realize I was going to take a break from what is now the older work which is another reason for the delay uploading them.

Side Spiral,

2011

Cube Stack,

2011

Short Spiral,

2011

Resounds,

2011

Reflection 2,

2011

Towers,

2011

Paper Coils,

2011

Never a Frown,

2011

Contact,

2012

Duple,

2012

Saturn,

2012

Untitled,

2012

Untitled,

2012

Untitled,

2012

Untitled,

2012

I have several other paintings from 2012 that aren't uploaded here. The reasons for that are because they either weren't finished or I wasn't happy with the documentation, if I re-shoot them I'll upload the images then. 

Work in New York

I had 3 works selected for The Story of the Creative exhibition opening tomorrow night in New York at the See// Exhibition Space. I received the email last month inviting me to take part. The piece below, Saturn, was the image used on my invitation.

3 others would be selected for show. So needless to say I was delighted with the invite and accepted straight away. I can't make it to the opening in person but it's great to be taking part in this group show in New York.

The exhibition is taking place at:

See// Exhibition Space 

26 - 19 Jackson Ave.

Long Island City, Queens

New York, NY 11101

Below are the 3 paintings that were selected for the show - 

Work in Belfast

I submitted a drawing to Papergirl Belfast, I think back in May, the exhibition is opening tonight at the PS2 Pargon Studios.

The piece that I submitted was a variation of the one below:

I didn't do a great job of photographing this drawing but where the green bit is, there's pink on the piece sent to Belfast. 

Here's a link to the Parpergirl Belfast site - http://papergirlbelfast.tumblr.com/

Good News and Bad News

First up the bad news - I've had to cancel the residency with Listhus in Olafsfjordur.

The good news though - I've been accepted onto Masters in Fine Art.

The reason I had to cancel the residency was because I'm not financially fixed to complete both the residency and MFA. I am massively disappointed at not being able to return to Iceland but I'm also really delighted at being accepted onto the MFA. The MFA was what I've been working towards for the past 3 years so I'm going to put everything into it. I've spoken with Alice who is Managing Director at Listhus and I'm hoping to possibly work on the Listhus residency a few years down the line, but at this time I don't have the finances to go to Iceland and take on the MFA.

Behance Page

I set up a Behance page, it only has a few things on it but you can see it here -

http://www.behance.net/PatByrne

If you like the work on it hit the Appreciate button and feel free to leave a comment too.

Kfest

Just got back from Kilorglin in Kerry this evening. I went down yesterday with 3 paintings to the Kfest, got them hanging and gave a bit of a hand sorting a few bits out around with friends, artists and organisers of Kfest Mike Ahern and Niamh Cosmon.

This is the first year of Kfest and it's launching on Friday, 31st of May, here's a link to the website - http://www.kfest.ie/

Here's 2 of the paintings that I took down to the festival, there's a third but I wasn't happy with the documentation, I can put it up later.

Solo Show Dates

The solo exhibition has been posted on the Arthouse website with the dates, it's running for 1 month, from September 5th to October 4th.

There's an image of one of the new paintings, now when I took the photo it wasn't stretched on a frame and I was having difficulty stretching it on the wall of my studio so it looks a bit wrinkled, my statement is there too. It's stretched up now though so when I post the images after the exhibition it will look the part. The only thing is I was wondering if it's too subtle but I, what the object is in it, if you want to, you could leave a comment here with a bit of feedback.

Here's the link : Upcoming Exhibition ‘Excursion’ By Pat Byrne September 5th to October 4th 2013

Update on the Solo Exhibition

The exhibition that was meant for June and then got pushed back to September has been fairly nailed down. It will be opening now on the 5th of September which is a Thursday. I had a meeting today with the Laois Arts Officer about the work that'll be showing and the exhibition and we agreed that maybe on the Thursday it would be a kind of unofficial opening night and then on the following Saturday, the 7th, It will be officially launched by a guest, who I need to get in contact with. I'll also be giving a talk on the residency in Skagastrond and my new work.

About a week ago I also got some work into K-Fest in Kilorglin in Co. Kerry. It's the towns inaugural visual arts festival and it's running from the 31st of May to the 3rd of June.

June Exhibition Pushed Back

Today I contacted Laois Arts Office just to see about nailing down a couple of dates for the solo show in The Arthouse in Stradbally. I wanted to just sort out an opening night, and discuss the talk that I have to give at some stage. Muireann Ni Chonaill, the Laois Arts Officer told me though that there was a bit of a mix up in dates for exhibitions in May and there were 2 artists marked down for the same time, so one of them is having his exhibition put back to June which means mine has been moved to September.

I'm actually kind of happy as it takes a bit of pressure off, and I can continue working at a steady pace rather than panicking closer at the time. Plus there's still a good bit that I haven't sorted out so even though it's only April I did feel like I was leaving it late for a June exhibition and along with that when the change in dates happened the 27th of June was mentioned as an opening night, then fit the talk in somewhere and then leave for Iceland on the 1st of July.It would have been too all over the place so I think this will be better and less chaotic when the time comes round.

Muireann is calling to the studio in 2 weeks to see the work and talk about the exhibition so if there's any word of a definite date I'll post it on the blog here.

Laois Arts Act Grant 2013

I got a letter during the week informing me that my application for the Laois Arts Act Grant was was successful and I have been issued some much needed funding for the second year in a row, and for a second year it will be going towards a residency in Iceland.

I am extremely grateful to Laois County Council for this funding.

Just a Quick Update

I'm still working away in the studio in Mountrath. At the minute I'm undecided on whether I'll be moving out in June or August. But I'm getting the work that I brought back from Iceland last September finished up and the paintings are progressing nicely.

I have a new solo show lined up for The Arthouse Gallery in Stradbally, Co. Laois. It's currently penciled in for June so I am feeling the pressure, I'm aiming to be fairly ready around the middle of May but the way things go it'll probably be the night before the opening. I'm looking at 10 - 12 paintings and I have 4 finished and 2 more almost done.

I will have these new works up here on the blog at some stage down the line.

After that then it's back to Iceland for 1 month in July but after I get back it gets a little hazy, there's no concrete plans, I'm looking at either Dublin or Cork.

I'm intending to maybe upload some video blogs via Vimeo. I hope to do one in May or June just to round up the past 2 years, and hopefully make a video blog every 6 months after that or something, I need to get an external mic before I start making them so the sound will be decent enough.

That's where things stand at the moment, I'll probably post something up here soon about the solo show once it's sorted out with solid dates.

2 Paintings in Wexford

I meant to update the blog with this earlier but I've had a busy few weeks. Anyway I have 2 paintings showing in the Green Acres Gallery in Wexford. It's their Annual Open Group show. This year is my third time to show with them. I missed last years deadline and so ended up not even getting in application so I applied in plenty of time this year. I also showed work in the Annual Open in 2010 and 2011.

These are the 2 paintings that I have in it.

'Contact'

'Tocsin'

Both of these were completed in 2012.