Charity shops and painting

studio with new painting

 So today I have spent the third day in the studio on this composition, initially its a slow process working out how to start the painting and then I take each stage as it evolves and change and modulate my original plans to fit with each new development.

setting up my flowers for painting

  I make  working sketches that are short-hand visual aids for patterns,

etc this one is inspired by some beautiful dress material of my daughters, I must add it was inspired not copied as the original bears no resemblance whatsoever.  The vase was from a charity shop, as soon as I saw it I knew it would translate into paint,  and the copper tray was from a lovely interiors shop Ryle and Company that has now moved to Glencormac, Kilmacanogue. I have done 6 hours in the studio since this morning and my head hurts and I am painted out, must escape and get some fresh air!!

All painted out!!

Pat Kenny at Doorway Gallery Opening

Opening of the Doorway Gallery, Dublin by RTE presenter Pat Kenny.



Thanks to Inky Wrists

Pat Kenny and Lucy Doyle at Doorway Gallery Dublin

Denise Donnelly, Pat kenny and Lucy Doyle

Thursday 24th March was the official launch of the Doorway Gallery on South Frederick Street as well as Padraig Mc Caul's solo show "Sentinels". The night was a great success with plenty of people in the gallery. RTE's Pat Kenny opened the gallery with an excellent and entertaining speech.

Tapestry Collection Now Online



Flower Arrangement
92 x 76 cm
Oil on canvas





A full set of images of the paintings making up the Tapestry collection can now be seen online. Link

New Working Theme: Tapestry

Tapestry
152 x 122 cm
Oil on canvas

The paintings I have been working on since my last solo show, Persephone in 2010, have been loosely based around the theme Tapestry.  Not that I have another solo show planned until 2012, so a theme is not particularly important to the way my work is going at the moment.  However, for a while now I have been thinking about the way a tapestry is constructed of thousands of individual woollen stitches and the similarities to the way I construct my paintings.  When a tapestry is completed its numerous raised stitches fuse together visually to become a readable picture as well as a tactile object in its own right. At any stage it is evident when looking at a tapestry of what it is composed of and that the identity of each component stitch still retains all its characteristics of wool.  In a modernist approach to painting I want to keep paint as pure to its original form as I can, so that it is evident to the viewer, that it is paint that they are looking at with all its individual properties of colour, texture and form still retained. I work with a palette knife which gives the surface of my paintings a lot of depth and texture. I like this tactile quality as it helps to maintain and establish the 2-dimensional reality of the canvas.

Lucy Painting at Culture Night Dublin 2010