Irish Arts Blog

Liquid Lust

Susanne Iles

What is the most delicious thing you can get an artist as a gift? Here's a hint, it's something sexy and exciting. Can you guess?

That's right....new art supplies!

I've discovered the best way to get out of the box is to use new "toys" that are fresh and unfamiliar. I usually paint with tiny brushes and acrylic paints, but wanted to try something different. This time around I've decided to play with some fat brushes, splashes of water,India ink and ink pencils. So much fun!


The following pictures show the progression of my new painting entitled, "Kimono". You can see how the colours were allowed to pool and bleed before adding the woman painted in black ink. Using a fat paintbrush gave the painting a more organic, free flowing movement and shape. Spontaneity and surprise made this piece a lot of fun to paint!


Here's a look at the finished piece entitled "Kimono". The flowers on her kimono were painted to contrast the liquid look of the rest of the artwork.

Fly Agaric Shoes

Amanita muscaria

, commonly known as the fly agaric is a poisonous fungus, The quintessential toadstool.

This experiment is about mixing & combining nature with manmade… the natural world with the material world. In this case a fly agaric with a pair of ladies shoes. I know it sounds bizarre but that’s the beauty of it.

When you get down to the nitty gritty its all made up of the same stuff….atoms, molecules, fragments, particles, sparkles, colours, magic etc.

In my mind it is possible to create the impossible, it’s only through limiting thinking that we fail to see the opportunities to create a vision or concept that is alien to the generic lifestyle that is prevalent today.

These fly agaric shoes have allowed me to use my imagination to produce a unique concept.

We all too often underestimate our abilities as creators of our own vision.

The beautiful "fly agaric" mushroom (Amanita muscaria) is unmistakable with its bright red cap covered with white scales (remnants of the membranous universal veil that once enveloped the entire stalk and umbrella-like cap). Some authorities believe that this striking mushroom was the mysterious God-narcotic "Divine Soma" of ancient India.

Spring time

by Sandra Richardson,Feltpix.

April is upon us and it's Spring time. We have a taste of brighter, longer evenings and some better weather, which brings us outdoors more and that has to be a good thing! Colours and flowers are out in the garden and this girl in the the orange and red dress is 'Picking flowers'. I had great fun this week planting some seeds with my kids, they are so enthusiastic! We had an assortment of flower seeds and there are now dozens of little pots around the house, that get watered and checked daily and there is a running progress report of what is sprouting and how fast. In a few months they will pick them like the girl in my picture!

From flowers to leaves, check out the 'Stegosaurus eating lunch', he looks like a friendly sort of fellow - not so sure they were in their day!

Questions

By Patrick Naughton

I have just recently started a new series of photographs examing Dublin's urban environment. The exact objective of this project is unclear to me. I can tell you what I do.  I observe, stand still, then record the movement of the city. People move around with purpose, a Celtic Tiger swagger in their stroll. I dont know whether I am photographing this life or the traces of Dublin long ago embedded in our streets, statues and architecture. Stories heard and stories told. Anyway, I am sure the true meaning of these photographs will reveal itself sooner than later.

Stork Cufflinks

By Lynn Durie

My latest commission was cufflinks for an Obstetrician (baby doctor!)

I went through a whole load of ideas for what I could do including sperm and egg which I think would have been the best. I really liked my design but unfortunately the gift giver wasn’t so enthused!! So we agreed on the safer ‘Stork’ option. (boo hoo! Going to do that sperm and egg thing anyway some other day, too good to be forgotten!)

So I thought it was going to be relatively straight forward (ha! ha! ever the optimist) which it was until I got to the soldering part…Lets just say I underestimated how difficult it is to solder two pieces of flat silver together. I actually hadn’t ever done it before; never the need I suppose. I realise now that I should have practised a little more before endeavouring. To cut a VERY long story short, at one stage unfortunately I lost one cufflink and had to start all over again from scratch. (‘kill-me-now’ scenario)  Soldering is such a tedious business. I liken it to whipping cream with an electric beater. You have to be very careful… a millisecond too long and you have butter or a melted ball of silver in my case. Oh well, you live and learn.

 So after all that trauma the inside of the image was oxidised (blackened) with a hideously poisonous solution which I loath using, ‘et voila’ cufflinks complete! AND it reaffirmed to me that I have definitely found the thing I love to do as even though I was crawling the walls with frustration, oddly I still loved every minute of it!

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Sailing southern seas

by cliodhna
I have been messing with photoshop recently, having fun, even though being on a computer so much kinda wears me out,
This is a submission I have done for threadless, a cool t-shirt company.
Its called sailing southern seas and she is sailing on magical stardust under the constellation of orion. The north star is below her. Also southern seas have a much more warm holiday like feeling to them than northern seas.

and some detail of the ship and the girl

Its april! time for those april showers we all hear so much about, oh wait, its ireland, I forgot.... oh well, march and june showers too so then.... :). I missed april fools day. I was going to do something for it and then it passed by, guess I was the april fool.....

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