Finished the Abbeyleix Residency

Scratching a perspex plate

I finished up in Abbeyleix Further Education and Training Centre this week after a residency lasting just under 3 months. The original plan was to play around with some animation but after the first 2 weeks my laptop closed down and wouldn't turn back on, the timing wasn't a huge issue though because I was due to start working with the Level 5 students as their work experience module started and ran for another 2 weeks.

I really enjoyed the fortnight teaching, I had to write up a brief and the students worked from that. They were very easy to work with and are a really, really strong group technically. The work being produced over the 2 weeks was a high standard and they gave excellent presentations both at the halfway point and at the end of the module. There was also a huge variation in the work across the group, the brief linked to my my own practice in terms of making prop's and using them to create scenes as source material for paintings but some people concentrated on the prop building and refining it to a point where it served as a finished piece without anything else. Other's worked on drawings, paintings, illustration and photography working from the models that they had made. Some of the work can be seen on the Art Department's Instagram

Skull drawing

I started my second month of the residency after the teaching and decided with the laptop gone I was going to try some printmaking. I never really gave it a proper try before, I did a tiny bit of carborundum printing back in first year in Galway and I think maybe monoprint when I was a student in Abbeyleix in 2006. Drypoint was where I started just taking an old sheep skull as a starting point, it was really to try and get use to the process of scratching into the perspex plate. I was kind of happy with the results as a first drypoint print. There were a number  of problems with it, I think on one of the attempts I wiped away too much ink and on the other not enough. I don't think I scratched deep enough into the plate either so I'm not sure if it was able to hold enough ink or not. With these plates only being trials I didn't worry about dampening the paper either, I would do that for the next attempt.

The first 2 drypoint prints

I started a painting back in early January and I wasn't happy with it so the the next drypoint print would be a way of recycling that and I ended up using the remains of the painting itself to test glazes. I actually used a lot of images from previous work just so I could jump right into the process of printing but these test pieces won't ever be exhibited, so aside from social media and my blog they won't be seen beyond rough documentation.

The painting that was the source of some test prints

I started using linocut in the middle of working with the drypoint. I was using the softer blue lino and hacked through it a couple of times so I want to try using the tougher grey lino and hopefully I can avoid cutting through it. Again I used the painting above to start with and the result is below, there were a few issues to iron out too. One was the application of the ink, I applied far too much on the first print, not enough on the next few and I think the last two or three I was happy with. I think with the first couple I probably didn't roll the ink out enough before putting it on the lino. I wanted to just get going with it so it was slightly rushed.

First attempts at linocut

Overall I was happy enough with these first few attempts at the prints. I was trying to make them with a similar aesthetic to my paintings or see if I could, I think this is something I would try to avoid with the linoprints. It might work with the drypoint process. I used stronger paper and dampened it for the piece at the end of this post and felt the result worked out pretty well.

Second attempt, reusing the image of a drawing I had for Birr Arts Festival last year

From here I'm back working on a new body of paintings based on the same them of folklore and mythology, I'm hoping to keep the prints going too. Jackie, Edel and Jock asked if I would work with them to curate the Level 5 artists' graduate show in The Dunamaise Arts Centre. I haven't any exhibitions lined up this year but I have two solo exhibitions scheduled for 2018. I need to just finalize things for one in February that's going to be in Pallas Projects, Dublin and the other is down for April in Birr Arts Centre. I just wanted to say a massive thanks to Jackie Edel and Jock for having me back for the residency and for the chance to work with them and the artists studying in Abbeyleix.

The last drypoint on the residency and a small mark-making sample

Residency in Abbeyleix

I'm a bit late with this post due to problems with my laptop getting old. I just finished up my second week of a 2 month residency at Abbeyleix Further Education Centre. I started on the 9th of January and the original plan was to play around with some animation for the first month and the second would be taken up with painting and drawing. But again due to technical issues with my laptop the animation is out the window and I'll be focusing on drawing and painting for the duration of the residency.

One Who Holds November Sacred, given the laptop trouble the past while I thought this painting made an appropriate image

This Monday (January 23rd) I'll be teaching the Level 5 students for their work experience module. I've had to draw up a project for them to work on for the next 2 weeks and it's based on Mythology and Folklore. The main two reasons for choosing this theme was that when I was asked to work with the students Jackie, Jock and Edel mentioned that it would be good to have a tie to my own practice and it's something that I'm familiar with. The other reason is that it's a broad theme and I'm going to give them some free reign over the myths they decide to use.

I did my PLC Course here in Abbeyleix before going to Galway to study at GMIT so I'm gone out of it 10 years and in a decade it all kind of went full circle.

Update on Iceland

I've had to cancel the November residency in Iceland. I received a letter last week and my application for funding wasn't successful and I was dependent on that  to get going. I would've liked to get back and I am disappointed to not be doing the residency but on the up side I am starting a new body of work and I'll be kept busy with that.

The plan in Iceland was to work on sketches and drawings to incorporate Icelandic folklore into my practice and introduce new characters. I will instead be working with new characters based on figures of Irish mythology.

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.

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.

Work on the Residency

This is some of the work that I have completed since starting the residency in April.

My work revolves heavily around the exploration of oil paint as a medium, its versatility and its surface quality through the use of oil mediums, applications and work methods with a core theme being the idea of playing with scale and ambiguity, working this way to veil the connection between the painting and source material from the viewer.

The Mountrath Residency, Co. Laois

I started this residency on the first week of April 2011. Since moving into the studio and flat I've been quite busy. About two weeks after moving in I started assisting Vera McEvoy with the Culture Bug adult art workshops in the Arthouse, Stradbally Co. Laois. These ran up until the end of June where they concluded with an exhibition in the Arthouse Gallery. The Summer Arts Programme ran for the month of July. This involved art workshops for children. From the 11th of July to 15th I was back out in Stradbally assisting Vera  and from the 25th to 29th I was in St. Francis School, Portlaoise, with Conor Brennan and Debbie O'Reilly.

In terms of Exhibitions I have been fairly busy too. Since the 1st of July I have exhibited in Galway Arts Centre and a vacant building in Mountrath. This was a pretty big show personally because it was my first experience curating a group show and it went very well. It consisted of 10 Laois based artists and was opened by Assistant Laois Arts Officer Bridie Keenan. I'll be putting up more information and documentation at a later point. Upcoming shows include a group show in the Dunamaise Arts Centre, Portlaoise, my first solo-exhibition in Leixlip Library Gallery, Leixlip, Co. Kildare, another group exhibition in Galway, a piece in the Darklight Festival in Dublin (13th of November, just a quick update to this section. This exhibition at Galway Arts Centre didn't go ahead after, when I originally published this post the exhibition itself was only in the proposal stages and I was asked to show some work in it alongside some Galway artists but for reasons I don't know it never went through, and the Dublin show didn't go ahead either as there was a mix up with funding and the gallery who was running the exhibition.)   and then myself and the 4 artists in Stradbally are collaborating on a light installation for the Electric Picnic.

After that I want to concentrate on my studio work for a while because I have been so busy with other bits and pieces that the studio came to a stand still around the 1st of July.