Artist in School Scheme 2012

I applied for the Artist in School Scheme a few months back and my application was successful. On Monday the 23rd of April I started work at Clonenagh NS, Mountrath. It was mostly painting exercises early in the week which lead towards more completed pieces.

The Schedule:

Monday: Color Wheel & Complementary Colors

Tuesday: Warm and Cool Color & Shading Execises

Wednesday: Negative Space & Free Sculpture

Thursday: Still Life Drawing/Painting and Free Drawing/Painting

Friday: Portraiture & Conclusion of Sculpture

This work was done with Junior Infants - 4th class over 20 hours. I was asked by the Principle of the School would I work with 5th and 6th class too within the 20 hours so I  went back the following week for 8 hours extra (the school was closed on the Friday) to give them as much time, almost, as the younger classes. Because they only had a 4 day week I tried to get more work done each day to make up for having the Friday off.  

Monday: Color Wheel & Complementary Colors

Tuesday: Warm and Cool Color & Shading Execises

Wednesday: Negative Space & Free Sculpture

Thursday:  Portraiture & Conclusion of Sculpture

I think it went very well there was one day when 5th and 6th class didn't want to go out for lunch, they wanted to keep working.

Since the workshops finished I've been asked by the school to paint a mural on the wall outside it.

Laois Arts Act Grant

Mid April I recieved confirmation that my application for the Laois Acts Grant was successful and I have recieved some much needed funding thanks to Laois County Council.

Some of the New Work

This is some more of the new work that I've completed. Around October or November I decided to split the the body of paintings into 2 separate bodies. I've been carrying on with one and once I feel I have enough to fill an exhibition I will leave that one for a while and work on building the second collection.

These 2 are still part of the current body of work. I have another 4 in progress and I'm getting ready to complete several more, these works are the pieces that will be going into the exhibition in MadArt Gallery, Dublin.

I introduced colour to the way I was working back around September and decided to continue with it but a month or two down the line I decided these will go on as their own set and separated them from the paintings above. I'll be back to bring this collection along as well at some point.

These 2 are part of a collection of about 11 small pieces on Gesso Board. They were just samples and tests but some of them worked out really well. Because they were tests I wasn't sure how they would hold up over time and unfortunately some of them became brittle and really can't be moved a lot without bits and pieces crumbling. I used the traditional Gesso recipe of hide glue and chalk as a ground and it will be this that I'm using on a new body of small works that I'm starting soon.

Running alongside the paintings I've been making a series of charcoal drawings. I haven't documented these yet, but when I do I'll post them too. 

You can see all of the work together and my work from 2010/Final Year of College on my website - www.pbyrne.ie

What I've Been at Lately

At the moment the Laptop is kind of acting up slightly, as it turns out the new charger connection is a small bit loose so it has to be moved around until it connects properly but working through that.

At the moment though I have a few bits and pieces on the go, this week is the final workshop in the Arthouse in Stradbally and on Thursday we have the exhibition that the workshop group have been working towards in the Arthouse Gallery.

I'm currently in the middle of sorting out a solo exhibition in the MadArt Gallery in Dublin, the date is booked - 18th of May, really excited about that, it will be the new work going into that and its just before Iceland.

Still working on the current body of work, preparing materials for a new body of small scale works and planning a new video project.  

Updating the Website

I have the website almost completely updated for the year 2011, I have images of my work up, I just need to get      the Midlands Arts and Culture Magazine bit up and the Curating images sorted. I had a few technical issues with the laptop so it's taking a while to get the new stuff up on the site but you can see it here - http://www.pbyrne.ie/

Midlands Arts and Culture Magazine Issue 16 Winter 2011/2012

The Winter issue of Midlands Arts and Culture Magazine was out this month and our project form the Electric Picnic, The Honeycomb Project, was on the cover. This is the first time I was featured in a publication.

On page 10 there's a write up about me and my practice, the current residency and my future plans. The interview was carried out in July 2011, before Occupied, the show that I curated in Mountrath.

And then on page 15 there's a page all about The Honeycomb Project and those of us involved with the installation.

Harvest Fair, Portlaoise

For the last 2 weeks of October I worked with John Dohany, an Artist and Set Designer from Portlaoise, constructing large scale props and sculptures for the Halloween Harvest Fair which took place in the centre of Portlaoise town. The event was a great success, i think somebody said there were around 3500/3600 people at the fair. Even on the last day there was loads of work to be done so unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the finished work. My main duties were prop builder and painter and John also asked me to make an animation that would be projected onto a huge moon that was probably close to 16 feet across and 12 or 13  feet high, this stood at one end of the area.


This is one of the fliers, designed by John Dohany