Wednesday 11 November 2015

Leaving the Dublin Studio

I've had to move out of the studio at A4 Sounds. The reason being that I've been so busy around home that I was getting time to use it. Just with travelling between Dublin and Laois, if I wasn't on the bus early the day was gone and that was that. I have a couple of weeks left on the lease but I'm working from Mountrath again. I was only managing one or two days a week in the Dublin studio at least this way I can work on paintings whenever I'm home.

I'll stay in contact with the artists in the studio and hopefully manage to get back at some stage but for now I'm happy enough to be working back out in the country again and I'm currently working on a fairly large scale commission that I was asked to do during my MFA end of year show.

Tuesday 10 November 2015

New Residency in Iceland

I've been accepted onto a new residency in Iceland for November 2016. I'll be working at Here Creative Centre in Stodvarfjordur. I'm looking forward to going back and after doing a 3 month residency during the summer in 2012 I decided to apply for a winter residency this time around. It's also on the Eastern side of Iceland. It's just for a month but I'm hoping to possibly have a small exhibition at some stage before I come home.





I'm hoping to use this opportunity to incorporate Icelandic folklore into my work but I'm not going to concern myself too much with tying it in immediately with my current practice, I'll wait and see what happens and play a little bit.

Saturday 3 October 2015

New Studio in Dublin

I have just moved into a new studio in Dublin. I signed up for a membership with A4 Sounds a few weeks ago and got a studio last week. I'm delighted to be back based in Dublin but with the residency in August and the exhibition last month I didn't want to break up my work time with moving. I found working on my own over the summer tough after being part of a busy atmosphere at Emmett House so I'm happy to be part of a group environment again.

A4 STUDIO FLYER FRONTblank

There's a good number of multidisciplinary artists based in the building and there's always a lot of activity around. I'm hoping to be back painting this week but with a few small jobs to get done I'll just be working on a piece that I started about three weeks ago. It was originally intended to go into Beneath the Dock Leaf but I wasn't happy with it and restarted it the week after the exhibition opening.


No title yet but this is the newest painting so far.

I'll have a profile page on the A4 Sounds website soon so once that's up I'll post a link.


Thursday 1 October 2015

Q & A with Patience Brewster

I was contacted during the week by Marietta Gregg who is Marketing Director at Patience Brewster and I was asked if I would take part in a Q & A. It's part of the Patience Brewster Artist Appreciation Month project and they will be posting links on their social media to the blog posts that they receive. I was delighted to take part, the 5 questions and answers follow.


(1) As a child, do you recall a significant moment when you felt truly affected or inspired by any particular artwork or artist?

I don’t think so, growing up in a rural area in Ireland I didn’t have easy access to art galleries and I lived a fair distance from Dublin and so I was 18 when I first visited an art gallery. There was a show titled Northern Nocturnes in the National Gallery of Ireland in 2005. This exhibition consisted of paintings by Dutch and Flemish artists and I remember being completely captivated with some of the Rembrandt paintings on display, I had never seen them in real life or outside of books before that. As a child I spent a lot of time drawing and I remember winning a trophy in a local art competition when I was 5. Drawing was just something that I always enjoyed doing and it went from there.


(2)As an artist, what do you hope to convey with your work?

At the moment the focus of my work is superstition and folklore. My goal with this current body of work is to portray Irish folk figures, such as leprechauns, pucas and, at some point the banshee, in a more realistic fashion. I’ve painting them as figures in more contemporary attire, such as hoodies and tracksuits instead of the traditional tuxedo and bowler hat. I’m not trying to redesign these spirits but rather reinterpret them without the element of parody and cliché.

The fact that nobody really believes in them anymore was also something that interested me. They are effectively unemployed and due to this they appear to have very little going on in their lives, the leprechaun is no longer needed to mend shoes and the banshee is not needed as a warning of death. They have all been replaced with rationality which I think is a pity.


 Leaves, Oil on Canvas, 55cm x 35cm, Pat Byrne, 2015



The New Baal Fires, Oil on Canvas, 57cm x 40cm, Pat Byrne, 2015


(3)What memorable responses have you had to your work?

I received really positive feedback in June this year towards the current paintings. It was the first time they had been installed for display and it was my MFA Graduate exhibition at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. My work almost sold out, I only brought home one painting out of the installed body of work which I was really surprised at because before that show I only sold 2 pieces. Also during this show 8 of us had our work reviewed by artist and art critic James Merrigan. That was great and one of the most memorable responses that I have had towards my work because in the paint department we all would have been following James’ website Billion Journal.

The Honeycomb Project was another project I was involved with in 2011. It was a collaborative light installation that 5 of us worked on for The Electric Picnic music festival and we got a lot of positive feedback. That was the first time that someone might have been talking about a piece of work and I was able to say I was one of the artists who worked on it.  


The Honeycomb Project, MDF, Plastic Bottles and LED Lights, Laura Byrne, Pat Byrne, Karen Hendy, Helena Malone and Vera McEvoy, 2011


(4)What is your dream project?

I don’t think that I have ever really thought about what would be my dream project. I think at the moment my dream project would be to exhibit alongside some of my friends that I have met along the way. During my undergraduate studies at Galway – Mayo Institute of Technology and postgraduate studies at the National College of Art and Design I’ve been really lucky to meet some really great people and to become friends with them. As for my own work, I would like to work towards a show outside Ireland at some point and continue working in a similar way to what I’m doing now and I think another Icelandic residency would be good too, I have applied for one recently and I’m waiting to hear back so hopefully it’ll be good news.


The Result of Solitude, Oil on Canvas, 36cm x 25cm, Pat Byrne, 2015



(5)What artists, of any medium, do you admire? (Famous or not!)


Kevin Cosgrove, Kehinde Wiley and Jeremy Geddes are three figurative painters that I really admire. Even though my work is nothing like Fiona Rae’s I have always really liked her paintings too and how she speaks about them. Niamh O Malley and Ailbhe Bí Bhriain are 2 more Irish artists whose work I like. Painting features in Niamh’s work alongside video and installation and although Ailbhe works with video I think there’s a very strong painterly quality about her work.     

Links



Saturday 26 September 2015

Some of the New Work

I have some of the new paintings documented and uploaded on this post. I haven't uploaded them to my website yet though, there's more of a glare on some of them than I thought originally so I'm going to re-shoot a few of them.

Some of the newer pieces were much more still life based work and focus more on trinkets that are sometimes associated with the figures of folklore. They also served as a way to introduce new figures to the work at a later stage.

Some of the paintings proved more difficult than others to photograph, I won't need to document all of them again but there are 3 of the 5 pieces shown here that I'll re-take. The bottom painting, To Sing or Whistle, is gone into the Laois County Collection.




A Silver Shilling or Golden Ashes, Oil on Canvas, 20cm x 17cm, 2015




Merely on a Spree, Oil on Canvas, 26cm x 18cm, 2015




Possessor of Great Riches, Oil on Canvas, 34cm x 28cm, 2015




Red, Oil on Canvas, 17cm x 16cm, 2015




To Sing or Whistle, Oil on Canvas, 56cm x 41cm, 2015

Sunday 20 September 2015

'Beneath the Dock Leaf' Installation Shots

Beneath the Dock Leaf finished yesterday. I was very happy with the feedback on the work, this was the first exhibition of the work since I finished the MFA in June and it was the first solo show since Excursion last October. There was also more paintings on show than during my MFA show, in the old Frawley's building I installed 9 pieces but at The Hyde Bridge Gallery I hung 14 works. There were several new paintings that I worked on over the summer but a big difference with these newer paintings was that I have been working in a space on my own so there wasn't anyone to ask for feedback and had to trust my own judgement. I was told too that there was a big attendance at the exhibition for Culture Night.



I really enjoyed working in The Hyde Bridge Gallery. It's a really great gallery consisting of 2 rooms and a corridor space. The 2 rooms contain a fireplace each. This prompted me to work on 2 pieces specifically for this exhibition and while I had both on display only was installed to interact with a fireplace. There's one wall in the first room that is almost entirely made up of a window and in the second room are 2 windows situated right in the corner providing both rooms with strong natural light. Between the windows, fireplaces and the fact that the gallery is made up of 3 spaces provided an interesting challenge during installation, making me consider which paintings were going together in which rooms and also how one room would lead into the next while trying to avoid very literal narratives.



Fairy and Folktales of Ireland by W.B Yeats served as a source of research for my work and as The Hyde Bridge Gallery is part of The Yeats Society Building in Sligo it was a fitting venue given the theme of my current work.





I meant to get a video of the exhibition but my camera wasn't charged, I'll do it for the next show. I was contact by The Dunamaise Arts Centre in Portlaoise on the 4th of September about the possibility of exhibiting Beneath the Dock Leaf there sometime in 2016 so I'll be speaking with them soon about that.






















I'll be posting documentation of the individual works over the next few weeks on my website and adding new pieces to the body of work.

Saturday 5 September 2015

New Solo Exhibition - 'Beneath the Dock Leaf'

I have a new solo exhibition opening this Tuesday (September, 8th) at the Hyde Bridge Gallery in Sligo. The show will be an expansion of my MFA show and is a continuation of the superstition and folklore focus while hinting at some of the new characters to be introduced.It opens at 6pm on Tuesday and runs through Culture Night until the 19th of September. The work in this show is relatively small scale, at the moment I'm unsure of how many works will be on show, I'm looking to hand between 10 and 12. While at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre I was talking to the director and he used to be director of the Hyde Bridge Gallery. He was saying 10 paintings would fill it and I do like a decent amount of space around each work. 





 Half in the World of Form, Oil on Canvas, 2015



The title, Beneath the Dock Leaf , is a reference to the writings of Lady Francesca Speranza Wilde. In her book Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of Ireland, Wilde tells of leprechauns being seen at work under dock leaves. However the fact that not so many people believes in these fairy folk anymore means that they are effectively unemployed and I wanted something to resemble the saying of "behind closed doors" as a title for these figures of superstition that gave way to a world of science and rationality




The New Baal Fires, Oil on Canvas, 2015  




Monday 31 August 2015

Residency at Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annamakerrig, Monaghan

I started my week long residency at The Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig, Monaghan on the 19th of this month. I was originally intending to arrive on the 18th but something came up at home so I had to leave it until the next day. When I arrived it took a few trips around the house to stop getting lost. I got to meet all of the residents that evening at 7pm when everyone in the house meets for dinner. The majority of people staying were writers, all in different disciplines,novelists, poets and play writes. out of 14 I think 3 of us were visual artists. There were more writers and artists staying in the cottages around the house too and they usually joined us after dinner.


My studio for the week, The Artist Room


I arrived around 2 on the first day and straight away went out  with the intention of scouting out possible areas that I could use for the new character that may or may not appear in my paintings. This didn't last long because it started raining and I ended up working in the studio for the rest of the evening on a drawing for a painting to be done when I get back home to Laois. I was also getting some bits and pieces together for the show at The Hyde Bridge Gallery in Sligo.




On the second day I was finishing off the drawing and didn't do much else. I was wandering around talking to some of the other guests on residencies here and due to the weather didn't venture outside. It still felt that I was settling in at this early stage too.

Day 3 was good which meant I was out running around the forest for the first half of the day. The new character that I've been considering introducing to the work is the Green Man or a wood spirit. I made a beard out of pieces of organza fabric shaped like leaves and sewn together. I had this over my face and having to run between the camera and where I was posing or standing meant that either I wasn't able to breath right or I'm massively unfit or both, anyway I don't know if I'll be using the images that I captured in the current series of work. I might/probably will use the character in the current body but the overall composition of the photographs from the residency are a little too brightly light to sit with what I'm currently doing.


The view from the front door and, for some reason, my hand


Later in the day I was back in the studio working on a few quick sketches in watercolour of the Green Man working from some of the photos taken that morning and that night we all gathered in the sitting room and the writers read some of their work to the group.

On the fourth day I got a drawing for a new painting very close to finished, while I will use it as a painting it won't be one for Sligo as I have a few more planned to do for that show. I also spent some time putting together a write up to send to Visual Artist Ireland for the exhibition at The Hyde Bridge Gallery in Sligo.

Sunday was a slow day for work, I did 2 small watercolour sketches but most of the day was spent in the kitchen with the everyone because almost half the group were leaving so we were just sitting around chatting and by the time we got back to our studios and rooms it was nearly time for dinner at 7pm and then we ended up talking more afterwards.

Monday was my last day and similar to Sunday it was spent talking. There was also a big turn over in residents at the centre and I met new writers just before leaving Monday evening.

I really enjoyed my time at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre. For my final year on the MFA I aimed to complete 1 painting per week and I have kept that momentum up. Going to Monaghan gave me a chance to get some new preliminary drawings to work up into paintings later, I also got to work on a potentially new character for the paintings. It was really good to hear the different authors talk about and read out their work too.


Wednesday 22 July 2015

Boyle Arts Festival

I have 3 paintings in the Boyle Arts Festival in County Roscommon which is opening tomorrow night (July 23rd) in King's House. I was delighted to be asked by the festival curator, Tony Murphy to take part.

Boyle Arts Festival


(Above) Invitation for Boyle Arts Festival


I'll Show You, Oil on Canvas, 29cm x 23cm, Pat Byrne, 2015

(Above) One of the paintings that I have on display in the Boyle Arts Festival

Saturday 11 July 2015

The New Work

In 2013 I started my MFA at the National College of Art and Design where I changed the focus of my work completely. During the 3 years between the completion of my BA and the beginning of the MFA there were several times where I had considered changing direction and looking at folklore as the theme of my paintings. What I had been working on previously, I felt, had enough momentum left that I didn't want to just end it with a sudden halt, I think it was coming to an end but it still had some life left.

While studying at NCAD it gave me a chance to take a step back and not worry about necessarily working towards a deadline and separate myself from the older work. During this time I began researching superstitions, folklore and mythology. Unsure at the early stages of first year where I wanted to push the work, I started out looking at natural based superstitions surrounding animals and trees, such as magpies serving as an omen of ill luck, depending on numbers or the consequences of interfering with a hawthorn tree. Towards the end of first year I started working much more figuratively, this work is what I would concentrate on for second year, my MFA show and for the foreseeable future. The following images are of the work that I had on show at Frawley's, 36 Thomas Street, Dublin for the end MFA Graduation Exhibition in June this year. 



Ash and EmberOil on Canvas, 39cm x 28cm, Pat Byrne, 2015
                            
                                

Half in the World of Form, Oil on Canvas, 55cm x 35cm, Pat Byrne, 2015

                               

       Industrious, Oil on Canvas, 41cm x 31cm, Pat Byrne, 2014
                                           


Leaves, Oil on Canvas, 55cm x 35cm, Pat Byrne, 2015



Masquerading, Oil on Canvas, 25cm x 18cm, Pat Byrne, 2015



Now, Look Around, Oil on Canvas, 21cm x 17cm, Pat Byrne, 2014



One Who Holds November Sacred, Oil on Canvas, 38cm x 28cm, Pat Byrne, 2015



The New Baal Fires, Oil on Canvas, 57cm x 40cm, Pat Byrne, 2015



The Result of Solitude, Oil on Canvas, 36cm x 25cm, Pat Byrne, 2015


Leprechauns and the Púca were the mythological figures that I decided to focus on and towards the end of the year I introduced the Fear Dearg to the paintings. I intend to bring other characters to the project, the next one is on the way and hopefully another new spirit in August during my residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre. I'll be updating my website soon with these paintings plus others.

Links:









Friday 3 July 2015

Paint Tube Link

There's a post up on the Paint Tube Blog about my work from the MFA exhibition which closed on the 21st of June. It has 8 out of the 9 pieces that I had on show along with some writing about the paintings.

Here's a link - https://painttube.wordpress.com/2015/06/30/pat-byrne-mfa-graduate-2015/


Thursday 25 June 2015

Work Review

I haven't posted any of my new paintings online yet but there are a few featured in art critic, James Merrigan's review of our work during the MFA exhibition held last week, the link below goes to his site:

Billion Journal

and this link goes to the video titled Shitlist 2015.

https://vimeo.com/131089201

Monday 8 June 2015

MFA Exhibition, Dublin

Our postgraduate exhibition opens this week in Dublin. There are 25 of us graduating from the National College of Art and Design and the show takes place across 4 venues: Frawley's at 36 Thomas Street where 20 of us have our work on display, NCAD Main Campus, 4 artists are based here, 1 artist is showing at Emmett House at 150 Thomas Street, this is also where our studios were based for the year and another is exhibiting at Steambox Gallery.

The opening is taking place in Frawley's at 6pm on Friday the 12th of June and the exhibition runs until the 21st of June.


Frawley's was an old department store that closed, I think, in 2007. We have it opened for the exhibition and have spent the last 3 or 4 weeks preparing it for the show. Most of this preparation has been filling and painting MDF boards and the work is installed ready for assessments and the exhibition opening. 


The view of my space from the central area of the shop





There was a little movement with the wall boards and because of there were gaps that needed filling, I was hoping to avoid using gum tape but because the filler kept cracking we were left with no alternative.


I had to build a corner into the wall, this was done with a lot of filler


Nearly finished the setup I wanted to get a rough idea of how the work looked 


This wallpaper was up behind the stud wall and was one of the last things I removed from the space.


I didn't have too much trouble with the space, The cracking walls were a bit of a worry but I decided to use the gum tape to cover it and when it was painted combined with good lighting it wasn't very noticeable. The stress came during the final week of install and was completely my own fault. I have never used the Oiling Out technique before when painting and decided a week before the deadline to attempt it on some of the work I wanted to show. It was fairly slow drying so 4 of the 9 paintings I wanted to show spent the final week of install in the studio with a couple of heaters on full blast. Thankfully they dried the night before the deadline and were ready to hang.  

Here's a link to the Visual Artist Ireland website where the exhibition has been promoted and also has a list of us taking part: Visual Artist Ireland


Saturday 23 May 2015

New Website Up and Running

I have a new website that you can access here -   http://www.patbyrneartist.com/   - I'll be continuing to post on the blog here whenever there's something to post but the website is just somewhere to show the work all in one place along with my CV and all that.

It still needs a little adjusting and I haven't posted my newest body of work but I will at some stage. As it stands it has work made between 2010 and 2013

Wednesday 13 May 2015

Work in Group show at Templebar Gallery, Dublin

I have a painting in an exhibition opening tomorrow night at 6:30 PM at the Templebar Gallery and Studios in Dublin. The event is organised by Peachy Dublin in aid of Aware.

This is the painting I have in the show. The documentation isn't great because it's off my phone because I didn't have my camera.


Wednesday 8 April 2015

Laois Arts Act Grant 2015

I was delighted to receive word today that I have been awarded funding by Laois County Council. I applied for the Arts Act Grant to help fund the transport of work and set up the exhibition in the The Hyde Bridge Gallery, Sligo during September this year.


Monday 16 March 2015

Tyrone Guthrie Residency

Earlier in the year I applied to Laois County Council for the Tyrone Guthrie Bursary and I found out last week that my application was successful. i was delighted to get that news and I'll be going to work at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Monaghan  for one week from the 18th - 25th of August where I'm hoping to work on some sketchbook stuff to possibly develop at a later stage.


Friday 30 January 2015

Sligo Exhibition Dates Confirmed & Instagram

I sent back the contract to the Hyde Bridge Gallery and the dates are nailed down - 

Tuesday, September 8th is the day it will open on at 6pm and it runs then until the 19th closing at 4pm. 

As far as work goes I have 11 pieces completed, I've been working on the this series solid since around the end of September and have been looking to complete a painting per week, (I had one great week finishing 2 but the following week was a write of) so if I can keep up the momentum I'll have plenty to choose from. They're all fairly small to medium size so far but there's a canvas nearly ready to go measuring 150cm x 130cm I just need to size it and it'll be ready. 

Aside from that then I set up an Instagram profile, just to post up an odd studio shot or installation picture off the phone. You can go through the link here - http://instagram.com/pat.b23/  - I haven't posted anything on it yet though.