Art Exhibition Launched

We are delighted to announce that our new exhibition launched yesterday 31st August at the Library in Lucan, Co. Dublin. The exhibition will run for the month of September.
I had hoped to post some photos but I had left my camera at home (my son had been canoing on the River Liffey on Sunday and I had been reviewing the pictures I'd taken and forgot to put the camera back into my bag). Not to worry though as Marie had her camera and we will post the pictures here in the next few days.
It is only sixteen weeks to Christmas and an original work of art makes a lovely gift. We have a range of art on display from prints, watercolour paintings, oil paintings and acrylic paintings in a range of styles and a range of prices to suit everyone's price range.
If you are in the vicinity of Lucan during the month do drop in an check out the art on display. We would be delighted to receive reviews and comments here also.
Niamh

CEAD at NCAD this weekend

We all attended the opening/launch of the CEAD Exhibition last night at the NCAD in Thomas Street, it was a lovely evening - the sun was shining and the art on display was great.
So if you’re around Dublin this weekend, drop along to the end of year exhibition for the CEAD Students which is taking place at the National College of Art & Design, Thomas Street, Dublin 8. Opening times today Fri 26 and Sat 27 June 10.00am til 5.00pm and Sun 28 2.00pm til 4.00pm CEAD is Continuing Education in Art & Design, for further information about this subject check out the website http://www.ncad.ie/ I have three pieces on exhibit. They are all watercolours and are painted from photos which I took last year in New Zealand. Shirley has two pieces on exhibit, Marie who is participating on two courses both of which are accredited courses has twelve items on exhibit, three of which are her workbooks. The workbooks are great as they give an insight into the prints and how Marie developed them from the inspiration through to the medium used. It was great to see these as we hadn't seen any of Marie's work until last night.

Niamh's watercolour entitled Stones


Niamh's watercololur entitled On Deck

Niamh's watercolour entitled Blue Skies Above

Shirley's watercolour entitled Thtough the Trees

Shirley's watercolour entitled Mont-St-Michel France

CEAD Exhibition at NCAD

We are delighted to anounce that we all have paintings in the upcoming exhibition at the National College of Art & Design from 25th to 28th June, 2009. School of Design for Industry, National College of Art & Design, 100 Thomas Street, Dublin 8.

The exhibition of students is the CEAD Exhibition, CEAD being Continuing Education in Art & Design, the students take part in the evening classes at the college.

We have all being taking part in these classes. We hope there will be lots of sales!

NCAD end of year exhibition

The college has informed us of whether or not they have accepted our work for the end of year exhibition. This will bethe annual end of year exhibition at the NCAD National College of Art & Design, for the CEAD - continuing education in art & design. Shirley had two peices accepted and I submitted three of the pieces all of which were accepted.

Now comes the what seems like a very long wait for the exhibition which takes place at the end of June. I'll have some invitations in the next few weeks if you'd like to receive some contact me at 01-6242393 during office hours.

Submission of work for exhibition!

The date finally arrived. This evening was the date for the submission of work for the annual end of year exhibition at the NCAD National College of Art & Design.

Both Shirley and I submitted three of the pieces which we worked on while attending the Watercolour Techniques course. This was the maximum amount of pieces which could be submitted.

The students attending the "accredited" courses are submitting tomorrow evening - that includes Marie. Due to the fact that she attended a different course than either Shirley or myself we have yet to see what she was working on.

Now comes the nail biting wait to see if all the work we submitted will be accepted for the exhibition which takes place in June.

I'll follow up nearer the date. I did take photos of our work before dropping them to the college in Dublin this evening but due to the fact that they are to (hopefully) be exhibited I won't post the photos until after the exhibition.

End of Year

Well the end of year has arrived, that is for those of us attending the adult continuing education evening classes at the National College of Art & Design.

The term went really quickly and now all there is to do is have our work framed and ready to submit to the end of year exhibition.

I miss these classes as it seems to be the only "time" that I set aside specifically to paint and be creative, I also miss the human side of metting fellow artists and seeing the different styles and talents that are out there.

I'm looking forward to meeting all the students again and seeing the work on display during the exhibition which is to be held 25th to the 28th June.

Our next exhibition.

We are delighted to announce that we will be holding an exhibition at the South Dublin County Library at Lucan from the 31st August 2009 and running until September 28th.

In the meantime we are preparing to submit our completed pieces for the end of year exhibition at the National College of Art & Design, dates and details to follow.

Painting Outdoors at Trinity College Dublin

The tutor from our watercolour class organised to meet some of us at Trinity College Dublin on Saturday last to have a small demo and then pratice painting out of doors before visiting the National Gallery to view the Turner Exhibit.

To say it was cold on Saturday morning is an understatement, the sky above was grey and colourless and there was a breeze that would cut you in two. Anyway Shirley and myself found a nice quite place indoors - where we could see the lovely vista which we had decided to paint (pictures will follow shortly). It was my first time inside of the gates of Trinity I'm ashamed to say and its a place that I'd like to visit, maybe the next time in more detail as I've seen pictures of the impressive library and would like to explore this along with the other historic buildings.

Anyway the room that we entered was located beside the Restaurant - it was signposted as the way to the student buffet. The large room/entrance hall which we entered via two large doors contained two marble fireplaces and wonderful chandlers hung from the amazingly high ceilings. The tall windows were situated high off the ground - I had to stand on my toes just to see out.

We made our sketches and then did a rough painting which we finished off with ink to emphasise some of the more notable aspects of the location. I must say that I didn't like painting outdoors, I like to have myself organised with everything laid out and close to hand, maybe I'd have a different opinion if it was dry, sunny and there was no breeze - we'll wait and see I might just try it again, just once!

Here are some of the pictures............








We left Trinity just as it started to rain and spent two hours in the National Gallery on Merrion Square, we had a very welcome lunch of delicious warm soup in the restaurant and then it was upstairs for what was the last day of the Turner Exhibit. This only takes place during January of each year - I had attended a number of years ago but the exhibit displayed a variety of different pictures. For further information check out www.nationalgallery.ie

Shirley's Poinsettia

This is Shirley's version of the Poinsettia, we were sitting next to each other but we still had different perspectives of the same plant.

You can also see that we both have very different styles.

We went back to college following the christmas break and are planning our first outdoor trip to paint in Dublin on Saturday next along with visiting the National Gallery to view the Turner Exhibit.

The weeks are really going very fast and we are preparing our offerings to submit to the annual students exhibition at the end of the college year............... more pressure!

The Christmas Break

Well last night was the last night of classes due to the christmas break, I'm going to miss the class as I had missed the last two weeks due to illness. It was a very small class last night though and the still life which we painted was the very christmassy Poinsettia plant.

It is unreal that of the seven or eight of us that painted the same potted plant last night - no two turned out the same. Each of us have developed our own style, some of us paint very loosely and some are very tight and almost look like a photo. This is my painting, I must say that I like it and was happy with the way it turned out.

I should get a photo of Shirley's picture to post here and give an example of how our styles differ.

Craft Fairs in Kildare

Well I have to say that people are still spening money despite of the downturn in the economy. Having taken part in a number of craft fairs over the last few weeks I have seen that people are still buying handmade, local crafts that just can't be got in the shops. The craft fair which was held in the Westgrove Hotel in Clane on last Sunday 30th November was very well run and a great day out.
This event was organised by one of the craftspeople and there will be a chance to see it all again on Sunday 14th December from 11am to 5.30pm at the Setanta Hotel in Celbridge, Co. Kildare.

I shall be taking part with my range of handmade clocks, functional and fun art. I can of course make one of a kind items and pieces on commission. For further details contact me at 0878259410 prices range from €34 to €64 so theres something for every budget.

Mid term break

Well this week is mid term break and although we only started attending classes at the NCAD a few weeks ago, I feel that I've got into a routine each week. Gathering up all the bits and pieces that are required - and the list is growing, has become a ritual each week. But this being mid term the college was closed this week and I really missed getting out of the house for the few hours.

I have however gotten back into the habit of painting and have just this week finished two very large oil paintings that I started last year - got so far and just couldn't get back into it to get them finished. At last they are done - won't my brother be glad. I was tempted to post the pics here, but decided against it - I should really let him as least see them first.