Earlier this year I found some etching proofs while I was cleaning out the studio. They came from a series of three prints I did in 2007 while on residency in Cill Rialaig, a famine village by the edge of the sea in Kerry which was turned into artist cottages. There were both single plate proofs and some that already had two or three plates printed on to them. I also rediscovered a few jars of delicious...
Making shapes and painting them are very different things. I came to painting by way of "making stuff" and sculptural shapes stayed to feature prominently in my work as a painter. The Sienese artist Sassetta had a profound influence on me when I first encountered his work some 4 years ago. Looking at his paintings changed the way I see shapes, both those in my paintings and those out on the street. His work compelled me to imagine the kind of shadows the shapes in paintings might create and add them as another dimension to my work. The Wolf Of Eyelash Mountain was the first body of work that dealt with that shift of...
It was a lot of fun working in Limerick today. Glass is so different to what I am used to but Tom had all the tricks and after a slow first hour we found our stride and flew through the day, fuelled by amazing food and coffee in each venue. Thanks lads! It was great watching Tom doing some snazzy silver leaf details...
Years ago I spent the weeks leading up to Christmas painting shop windows. It was a fun job (in a cold sort of way) and I loved it. When I was chatting to Tom, an old friend from Limerick and super-talented sign writer, the Christmas windows came up and we started reminiscing about the good old days of acrylic turkeys, holly, frozen hands and cups of tea and we decided to join forces again and spend a few days painting local shop windows for charity...
