Irish Arts Blog

Senegalese Matrimonial Masks

by Mairead deBlaca

‘What did you buy?’ I asked as he emerged from the Dakar Sunday Market.

‘Senegalese matrimonial masks, don’t worry I have one for both of us.’ He winked

It was high

noon

on Sunday and we just spent the morning investigating the Market. As we wandered around the vast daily market I was bombarded by colour - women wearing exquisite colour filled fabrics, brilliant swatches of cloth wound around their bodies and arranged on their heads in enormous bandannas. It was amazing; they flowed throughout market winding their way in and out of the stalls. As the morning fell away the air was becoming permeated with the aroma of roasted peanuts, sizzling shrimp and freshly squeezed lemons. Lunch was been prepared. The movement of the traders, the customers and the tourists all seem to find their natural rhythm within this warm, sunny and colourful country. Some how the chaos worked.

'So what about the Masks?' he persisted 'what are we going to do with them?'

'Oxfam?'

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The Octopus

by Susanne Iles

Sometimes a creative thought bursts out from the most unexpected places. I dreamed an undersea dream and woke up thinking, "So ugly, it's beautiful, that curious cephalopod." (I actually thought the word "octopus" but isn't cephalopod somehow more poetic?")

There is just something about the lowly octopus that delights and dazzles. Shapeshifter, dancer, a living kaleidoscope of colour! How could an octopus not tickle the imagination?

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The crow who wants to travel the whole world and see everything there is to see

crow asks the cat to go traveling with him

cliodhna
Good morning (or afternoon, depending on what part of the world you are in!) all. I am in the process of finishing off a project I started almost (or more maybe) a year and a half ago. Life got a bit disrupted in the mean-time and the pictures started to gather dust under my bed. I decided to get my lazy ass moving and finish it once and for all and now the end is in sight!

crow meets with penguins in antartica and is amazed they can't fly but they can swim

Its a children's story called 'The Crow'. Full story can be read here. Its the story of a crow who wants to travel the whole wide world and see everything there is to see. He doesn't want to go on his own though but he can't find anyone to travel with him. Then the wind whispers in his ear and off they go together! I have just finished all the full colour pages and now I just want to do something little on each of the writing pages.
I have it translated into Irish for an irish language publisher in dublin. So hopefully it might come to life and be on bookshelves within a year!

crow and the wind go on their travels

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Welcome to the world

by Sandra Richardson, Feltpix.

I was commissioned to do a picture after the arrival of a precious little baby girl. She is of course a modern day princess with her castle, that has the ability to catch love hearts as they come down to her from the sky! After finishing the picture I decided that I had to go out and catch some too. 

I am currently working on a series of pictures that have a sea/water theme, whether it's sea horses or waves, the list is long. Here is one of the series that I have completed.

It is called - At the Lighthouse. I was inspired by the Lighthouse in Hook Head in Wexford which I often visit. My favourite time to go there is when the sea is wild, waves are crashing and the sea foam is being thrown in the air and onto the road - it's also lovely when the sun is shining!

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THE JUGGLER

By Ellen McDermott

I had to juggle around with my canvas sizes to find just the right one for this  fella.  I eventually painted him on a large 4ft canvas so that I could  accommodate his alter ego who's balancing on his finger.   

This is a commissioned painting for Karen Harper, founder of Irish Craft Association and one that I am going to be sorry to part with, as are my kids and I can hear that little voice in my head telling me to 'just paint a second one for Christsakes.  Can't you imagine the look on Audrey's and Sarah's face when they find him hanging in their bedroom?'

But I'm too busy to paint him twice as I'm trying to get together a body of my own work right now.   Then again, I suppose I could always juggle my time management plans.  Hmmm

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The Haunting Boots

by Emma Barone

90cm x 60cm  Acrylic on Canvas

I asked the buyer “what is it about these boots that haunts you?” but she couldn’t explain. All she knew was that she had to have that painting and nothing or nobody would stand in her way. It was as if a moment of clarity forced her to immediately purchase without prior assessment. She satisfied her insatiable appetite when the sale was closed. A calmness gently engulfed every part of her being.

The vital exchange was complete.

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Heels to Heaven

by Emma Barone

This painting is one of 26 shoe paintings of my last solo exhibition entitled Shoe Show, Surely it will create a little smile on those grey faces everyone seems to be sporting these days.

Being that spring is almost amongst us & earthly energies begin to change rapidly & move towards growth & regeneration, I feel it in myself ….a shift towards something new in my life…..cant really explain in words but the instinctive feelings of change are beginning to emerge. I suppose it’s the leap from winter to spring & the urgent-ness of learning new things that may be used to sustain me through the year ahead.

Not a lot was achieved in January, I only made it to my studio about 4 times this year so far, a slow month when ideas & motivation were few & far between. Now that February is near all is forgiven. January is not a bad month it’s just a dark miserable month. But with the bleakness comes an appreciation for the promise of spring.

That’s why I choose “Heels to Heaven” to kick off my post & put me firmly on the blog map. This painting reminds me that life shouldn’t be taken so seriously, there’s always time for fun & frolics. From an early age we learn that shoes have magical powers, they promise fun romance excitement & the possibility of transformation. Did you know shoes are a force for change, a means of shedding the past & buying into the future.

Heels to Heaven  What’s going on here you might ask, Is she on a trampoline? Has she jumped off the top of a building? Is she adjusting her patterned tights? Is she a he? Did she slip on a banana skin? Is she doing cartwheels in the sky? Or just acting the maggot & having fun. What do you think fellow bloggers?

This painting raised several eyebrows at the opening of my Shoe Show & became bait for conversation mostly amongst the men folk.

Heels to Heaven 100x 100cm Acrylic on Canvas

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Exploring texture

by Cristina Colli

My last mosaic "Conflict of forces"  started out as an exploration of texture. Beside different kinds of glass (stained, iridescent, vitreous) and mirror (coloured and textured) I also used an agate slice.
I intend to introduce a wider selection of materials in my work - crystals, rocks, slate, shells, etc.  in an attempt to give an organic and plastic feeling to the pieces, making them almost tridimensional.

This piece represents the eternal conflict of positive and negative forces that accompany us in our journey of life. 
In crystal therapy, the agate is believed to illuminate, give balance, strength, protection and support.
The opposing forces, represented by the darker colours, converge towards the agate nucleus feeding it with energy, energy transformed into positivity by the agate itself and symbolised by the harmonious circular shape.

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GOODBYE JULIET

by  Ellen McDermott

Because I'm bordering on paranoidal insecurity when it comes to my art I worry all the time that people will think I can't paint. 

'Sure, we can see you can paint large abstract portraits and you can whip up a couple of  zebras in a week but can you paint?  Can you really paint?  Real grown up proper Art,  I think I hear them saying to themselves.  So here you are.  Here's one of my 'real' paintings.

I started her on Wednesday 6th of February and on the 7th day, yesterday, I finished creating her and rested.      While it's not my favourite style I do find it important to paint realistically every now and then just to keep my hand in and of course to remind my real and imaginary skeptics, myself included, that yes,  I can really paint.

Well, I think I can.

I can.   Paint that is.

Can't I?

My four daughters and I came to a unanimous decision that her name is Juliet.  I've told my youngest daughter that no she can't hang her in her bedroom and that she has to say goodbye to Juliet because I am giving her away.  Yep.  She is going to be framed and then given away to a Charity Art Auction for The Peter Bradley Foundation for acquired brain injury services who do such important and much needed work.

So if you fancy picking up some original paintings at affordable prices come along to:
Expose Yourself Gallery, level 3
Dunaloire Shopping Center, 7pm 13th March 08.

Drinks in Lime Bar (level 2) after Auction.

See here for further information.

And if you happen to see me there don't forget to say hello

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A Sharks Tale

By Patrick Naughton

I forget what time of year it was, a rainy june or a rainy september. But what I do remember clearly is that it was the day a shark came to Killiney Bay. It started with a persistent walk through Irish weather, down past the harbour at Bullock and the Dalkey Island. I followed the road and took a left path, leading me over the railway tracks and into a small shelter. It was during this intermission from the Irish rain that I saw a shark in Killiney Bay. It was an unfamiliar sight at first glance, a fin hovering above the waters edge. "No..but i have seen one of these before". At that moment of realisation I decared to myself that Killiney Bay had indeed been invaded by a shark. I hurried back out into the rain, catching a glance of the fin as it submerged into the dark water. As i ran home to Dun Laoghaire i forgot about the Irish rain, the fin etched into my memory. When i arrived home i told the tale of a sharks tail to my Mothers disbelief. I watched as she scrambled out an encyclopaedia, skipping past the sharks and their fins. Instead, to my utter dissapointment, she pointed to a porpoise and its fin. 

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