Hi Folks, So late as it is, this is my first blog of 2020, and as such I want to start off by saying I hope this decade is the best yet for you all. The end of 2019 was a little bumpy here as my poor mam was desperately unwell post knee surgery and contracted MRSA, it was a worry for sure...she has really been through the mill but is rallying well just with one or two continuing complications...it made us all very quickly access how lucky we really are..its a very true statement that your health is your wealth, as well I know.... thankfully with mum on the mend, kids back to school and hubbie to work I can return to the studio, Christmas was a quiet affair, we all had the awful bug in the run up to the big day so to say we enjoyed our quiet family Christmas at home is an understatement. AAEX - INSTALLATIONS EXHIBITIONS. Nov 2019.If you follow me on social media you will already know about my involvement in the wonderful AAEX Installations show prior to Christmas in Dundalk, Co. Louth. AAEX or 'Art As Exchange' is a professional arts group of approx 30 like minded individuals bringing attention to North Louth and subsequently the entire North East region through their engaged public art. AAEX teamed up with curator Anne Mager from 'The Corridor' to explore alternative exhibition spaces in Dundalk, with the help of several supporting partners we secured a large vacant shop on Clanbrassil Street and satellite installations at The Demesne, the Longwalk Shopping Centre, the route from the Train Station through to Park Street and the County Museum. The exhibition ran from 15th Nov - 29th Nov and culminated in a wonderfully attended and lively engaging panel discussion hosted by AAEX, Anne Mager and Marcel Krueger 'Where is the art in Dundalk' I was delighted to reconfigure my spirit bowls (Series: Ballast Full of Hope) and build a site specific display in a very dark anti-room off the main exhibition space in Clanbrassil Street for this event. My installation entitled 'Abundance' comprised a collection of delicate hand cast pure wax bowls, vessels, arranged amidst black draping and reflected in mirrored glass, to express the infinite possibility in us all…Abundance. Was there to be found and yet one must seek it out…. This was a thrilling vibrant and enlightening group to work with, I am very excited for any future association with AAEX and honored to be among them…to find out more about the group and amazing line up of artists check them out on social media here, see the jam packed catalog here. For now, here is a wee video compilation of the event I made and a look at several of the amazing installations that made this such a vital and versatile arts event. I will check in here again very shortly with a little news about what the first quarter of this year has in store for me...stay tuned and stay well, until then. x N.
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I've recently been wanting to change things up in the studio a little, and had a wee experiment where I adhered an encaustic monotype to a canvas! Fittingly I called it, 'Leap of faith'...see above.... it worked out beautifully! As I usually and primarily work on board this was a simple yet new direction for me and is opening up a plethora of possibility, not least in easier access to canvas but also in changing out how I might incorporate my encaustic monotypes into collage based mixed media works. With that in mind I purchased a large canvas, well large for me... At 75cm by 100cm. I started to cannibalize my monotypes and adhere them to this canvas with gel medium, as the canvas was already primed I then proceeded to get busy with my favourite asemic mark making approach before laying in colour and quickly I realised I need to knock it back a bit! To my mind the delicate tones used in my monotype sections was fast becoming overpowered by the use of paint medium... so diluted gesso to the rescue, I used the gesso as a paint medium, rubbing it over and scraping it back from the painted pigmented sections, and it gave it a wonderful softness that successfully knocked the strength of those pigments right back for me. I finished the piece with more mark making and the use of oil sticks and oil pastel and have decided to call it 'Longitude and Latitude'. (See the finished piece below). This may well have been inspired by all the recent trips we've had as a family to our Irish coastline, visiting both the beautiful wilds of glorious Donegal and the astounding rugged peninsula of west Cork in recent weeks, or my husband's ongoing obsession with outdoor swimming... But either way it has the tranquil quality of water and is a very restful non objective abstract, full of subtle energies and gentle calm. I most recently invested in a wonderful app called #artrooms, which has at last given me the opportunity to show in-room images of my works without (thank jaysus) having to be a tech wizard or have a PhD in the wild wooly ways of the internet!!!.... a marvelous tool not just for the stunning room options that work so well with my contemporary works but also because it gives me a chance to show you what the pieces look like framed with several different options to suit each taste or interior...I'm loving it!
Check it out... http://artroomapp.com |
Latest NewsAuthorContemporary Visual Artist working in mixed media/encaustic based in the drumlins of Co.Monaghan. Ireland. Archives
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