Monday, October 28, 2013

Mermaid- Scheherazade exhibition

Mermaid 92x76cm oil on canvas

Metamorphosis
Lying here having woken
from a time-freeze-state
of empty sleep
My body has sunk into the mattress
and become one with the floor.
I move a little and twist
away from the drip-drip
of sweat that is
falling from my sternum
down into the bed
My whole body including
my eyelids
Are sluiced with a layer
of filmy water
A new skin-gloopy and complete.
‘I am a mermaid’
‘I am a mermaid’
my feet say
as I direct them over
the side of the bed.
Together they stay
as they implant themselves
into the black wasteland
of the carpet.
I rise up tall
glistening and glowing
like a dying ember-
into the dark corridor
and the chill air
as I evaporate into
the night.

Monday, October 14, 2013

Paintings to preview- The Invitation


The Invitation 122x92cm oil on canvas

All the paintings for my forthcoming solo show Scheherazade are now at The Doorway Gallery for preview.  The exhibition runs from  the 7th November to the 28th November  and I am delighted to have Pat Kenny  kindly doing the honours of officially opening the show on Thursday the 7th between 6-8pm.   We will be sending out the invitations over the next week or two, if you are interested in coming along just contact The Doorway Gallery at 01 7645895 or email at info@thedoorwaygallery.com. 


Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Scheherazade exhibition of paintings

Mirror-Mirror 46x46cm oil on canvas

Its not long now until the opening of my solo show ‘Scheherazade’ at The Doorway Gallery www.thedoorwaygallery.com.  The show will be opening on the 7th November and will run throughout the month until the beginning of December.
I have worked and lived with this collection of paintings for over a year now and it really does take that long to get them where I want them, before I feel confident that they are finished. 

Picking Bilberries 92x76cm oil on canvas

I have put together a collection of around 20-25 paintings, that imbue a similar colour palette and subject matter. A world of the ordinary with an undercurrent of story telling and mystery, that brings into the work a timeless connectivity to worlds gone by .  I like to layer and weave references to other eras and cultures, for example the painting Picking Bilberries, which reads as a seasonal painting of a woman harvesting wild bilberries growing on top of a  dry stone wall.   I was influenced by a Roman wall painting at the time and conveyed that in the dress and hair of the figure.  I am also enjoying here the references to the edge of  the wood, with those cautionary childhood fairy tales in mind. Another edge of the wood painting is ‘Mossy Pillow’, this painting was inspired by visiting my mum who was moving yet again and  looking through a trunk of old photos from her childhood.  It was a rare one of her looking so blissfully happy and beautiful holding up her pet dachshund surrounded by her beloved father, mum and younger sister. For me it was so poignant because her family broke up later, with  her father moving to South Africa, leaving her broken hearted. 

Mossy Pillow  92x76cm oil on canvas
For this show I was looking at Mogul decorative art and patterns , as can be seen in the large still life ‘Fisherman’s Table’.  This painting is a very round about interpretation of the fairy tale The Fisherman and his Wife.  This is my favourite fairy tale from my childhood and I have always been fascinated by it. It  really resonated with me as a child and continues to do so, to me it illustrates a deep sense of fundamental moral truth.  Too late for the property speculators and over indulgent  banks,  I think. 


Fisherman's Table  92x102cm oil on canvas














I have reintroduced my pug from the Rococo exhibition, and for some strange reason he seems to have taken the place of the Persian King  in the painting ‘Scheherazade’, well that’s artistic licence for you. 
Scheherazade  92x102cm oil on canvas
To me, the pug breed, embodies laid back confidence and charm, nothing like the neurotic maniac that the story actually describes, but there again this is a perfect example of how my work is not illustrative and the subject matter is a means to an end for me.  All these approaches to getting a body of work together are devices that provide me with a starting point and scaffolding on which to finally get down to what really painting is all about for me, and that is manipulating colours and paint around a two dimensional surface until they look and feel right.  And how do I know when a painting is finished.  Well its as simple as one day walking into my studio and realizing that I don’t have to repaint any particular passage, that is screaming out for me to change, one day it just rests well on the eye and I can then look at it objectively and then I know I can do no more for it and I move on to the next one.