Some recent portraits of my four nephews and John's nephew (with a curl right in the middle of his forehead), including a few work-in-progress shots that seem to reveal that my portraits of children often start out looking like creepy dolls in horror movies! I always begin with a very rough sketch and 'sculpt' and adjust as I go along.
  Five months ago I didn't even know what a Victorian bathing machine was... I created two versions, one in coloured pencils, placed on a flat background, for the invites and for use on the web, and one in acrylics for the poster and programmes. Prints of these will be available soon.  This is a recent commission, a painting of the Quadrangle at NUI Galway, a building I pass several times a week when the University is my workplace. It is acrylics and measures 30 x 40cm. I was asked to include autumn colours in the trees in addition to the red ivy on the building, and there are some specks of gold and copper paint in there among the reds, oranges and burnt sienna. Red's Road to Green (written by Amie Ní Nualláin and illustrated by me) is now available in Ireland via our Etsy shop (in the US via The Indie Celt)! This collaborative project (part self-help, part creativity notebook, part memoir, written by Irma Mento and Pilar Alderete-Diez and illustrated by me) is now out in book form. More information to follow!
  These two paintings, which were done in preparation for illustrations for a forthcoming children's book, are now available in our Etsy shop. They are in acrylics, which were also used for the final illustrations, but for the book we decided to go with a flatter, blockier style.
 Lately I have been copying myself a lot - this is the third version of the figure-in-bird. We moved into our house about three months ago and are living in the sitting room and kitchen while doing it up. So my current studio is the kitchen table. The reason I have a framed painting on the easel is because I am recycling an old painting I no longer liked. I do this a lot, which means I don't have much of an archive!
 I recently did another version of the rocking horse I painted for Múscailt Arts Festival a few years ago and got it framed for the exhibition in August. It is currently on the wall of the hallway in our new house. Prints of this and other paintings will be available soon (not-so-gentle reminder to myself).
  A portrait that is also a sweet memento of all the cups of tea Kathleen and I had in the chalet. I lived there for almost seven years, and I met Kathleen the day after I moved in. It was the beginning of a wonderful friendship. She entered her ninth decade this year, but the painting isn't lying; she looks younger every time I see her and seems to have more energy than I do.
(The second photo shows the painting in its temporary home in our new house before Kathleen collected it. ) We had a great night at our exhibition opening last week. Thank you to everyone who came and supported us. Special thanks to Margaret Nolan, Fionnuala Gallagher and Paul Callanan!
Metaphorica is an exhibition of paintings by the wonderful Dagmar Drabent and me and runs until September 15th upstairs in the Town Hall Theatre, Galway. |
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