Irish Arts Blog

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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Snow White Shoes

She never wore those shoes, never even tried them on, her foot never even touched the purple satin lining. She just wanted to have and behold them, to occasionally take them out of her wardrobe and admire them.

But that wasn’t enough anymore she took her fantasy to the next level and a painting was commissioned. She wanted to keep those shoes in suspended animation, like her secret lover captured in the love bubble of her imagination.

But the choices of an eccentric lady didn’t sway my vision. When the painting was complete the shoes moved into another dimension. Yet again another story had begun.

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blue baby

cliodhna

Crow makes a wish and brings it to the sea.
It is a wish for companionship or for knowledge, he can't quite decide.
But it is a definite wish for something
and so he takes a piece of sky, he takes a piece of  the skies love for the sea,
and he drops it into the waves.
The sea swallows it in a rustle of sand and his wish is gone.
He waits by the shore hoping in his heart for a friend
and in his mind for the answers to the questions he asks himself constantly.

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Emergence

by Cristina Colli  cm 30x30 - Slate, smalti, gold leaf smalti

 

Creativity lightly knocks on my door. Sometimes the gentle sound is lost, covered by the noise of the outside world. Other times – the good ones – I hear it and I know that all I have to do is sit quietly and listen, letting images bubble up to the surface and allowing them to become a new piece.

When I started working on Emergence, I had an image of a powerful force bursting from within, struggling to escape from the prison of a thick, layered armour. A metaphor of the effort to break the outer shell and be true to our Self.

I used thinset to raise the smalti a bit above the slate, thus giving the impression of something forceful rising from the cracks, pushing through the slate. I also laid smalti at odd angles, to increase reflectivity and give the feeling of something out of control.

Slate, a metamorphic rock that splits into thin, smooth-surfaced layers, was an obvious choice to represent the layers of the shell.

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True Soul of Artisan Blogging

by Paul O Mahony

Last week the Irish Arts Blog got featured on the Irish Examiner and things are looking good for the blog.

But I don't want to just focus on Irish Artists. There are some really wonderful international artisan bloggers out there and in this post, I am going to draw your attention to some of them.

I  particularly like Bloggers who are whimsical, fanciful and playful.

Thanks to Cliodhna Quinlan, I have discovered Vanessa Valencia of A fanciful twist. This is a most astonishing blog, wonderfully inventive, with fantastic attention to detail and sense of comedy. Her stories are long, but highly entertaining and well written. She uses sequences of images that look like stills from a movie plot and a wonderful sense of fun emanates from it all.

I find that Artisans are mostly meditative and introspective by nature. They have a sense of the present, nature and the shifting of season. You get a feeling of calmness and sociability from their blogs. Artists like Jenny Vorwaller look beyond their art and apply their mindfulness to other aspects of their lifestyle in a manner which is refreshing and inspirational.

Rima Staines is another blogger new to me. She's an artist and animator and her blog really is a treat for the eclectic eye. Here is a wonderful animation from her, set to the music of Polly Paulusma:

So these are some artisan bloggers who I admire. I believe art made out of love is inspirational, and the more we surround ourselves with it, the more elevated our mood and consciousness become.

These are reasons why I believe art blogging is so important. We need to resurrect our connection with Art, Nature and our Intuition.

Tags: artisanblogging, art, artisan, artisan revolution

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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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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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