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

'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.

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  

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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.

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

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 Ember, Oil 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:

Billion Journal Review of Dublin Graduate Shows

Paint Tube

patbyrneartist.com

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/