Summer Shenanigans.

So another Summer has passed by like a tornado. Leaving the wreckage of me in it's wake...

From Baltimore to Israel via Kenmare!

This particular tornado was a fun one. It began in June When Jeff Barken came to visit and we launched our book with a reading/signing at the Bookstop Cafe in Kenmare. The book is now avaliable at Amazon and prints of selected illustrations are up at my print shop.  You can read about our collaboration at monologging.

Ourselves at the book signing.

To Dublin!

Then, much to my surprise and delight, Lucy Gaster the producer of a Sky Arts TV show contacted me and asked if I wanted to sell my work at a big art fair at the RDS. So off I went with my Aunt Jo to Dublin. 

Myself at the RDS

The show, to be broadcast in November. Is the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year reality show. I wasn't competing on the show myself but had an excellent view of the proceedings from my table and  got to meet  Frank Skinner, who is a gentleman and Pauline McLynn who is absolutely lovely (and game enough to pose for total strangers in the almost nude.)

 Across from me was an increasingly exhausted and very patient Lethal Bizzle. Who sat unnervingly still for a whole day.  Watch the show and you might see me in the background cowering in fear  as the cameras roll by. 

I also had the chance to catch up with filmmaker/author Tomi Reichenthal. Whose portrait I'm painting as part of this project. (The painting is nearly finished Tomi!)   He had just come back from the Galway film festival where his latest documentary Close to Evil, got a standing ovation.  

To Killarney AND Dublin... Again!

After that was The Gathering: An Exhiition of Kerry Artists. The brainchild of Jimmy Deenihan. Minister for Arts, Heritage & Gaeltacht Affairs. The Exhibition opened in Killarney, then moved to Dublin, and will hopefully go international from there.  Here is the beautifully produced catalogue. 

The exhibition is currently on display at The Copper House Gallery  in Dublin. Limited edition prints of the work are available through them. 

 I painted Vapor Trails for the exhibition. This is what I had to say about the painting:  

I think that anyone who grew up in rural Ireland, particularly the Southwest, will identify strongly with the landscape. The bogland is more than a pretty view or an unusual ecosystem. Its an environment that gets into your soul, if you live in it you are bound to explore it. Even though it can be uncompromising, hazardous and difficult to reconnoiter. It appeals, and maybe contributes to, our sense of curiosity and adventure. 

Some of my earliest memories are of stomping in the bogland around my home in a pair of oversized wellies. I don't think I'm the only one. The child in the foreground is pointing at a contrail. A lot of us leave, but no matter where we go we'll always be bog babies at heart.

To Limerick!

From here its on to Limerick and another group exhibition: Building Resilience, which is part of Mental Heath Awareness week. 

 This painting is going to be on display:

It's called ' A Happy Land Far Away'.  Centenarian cartoon fans may reciognise the title as a variation of Krazy Kat's catchphraze. The landscape and theme of the painting are an homage to George Herriman, whose strange art has always appealed to me. His battle with his own identity and the clues to his internal conflict pepper his work.

Back to Kenmare! 

 Then back home to exhibit at the Kenmare Lace Festival on October 5th. ( Painting revealed soon.) 

All in all it's been a wild ride. 

Di.