March 31st, 2007

Hello
I get emails from people about this blog but no one posts comments. I don't mind but feel free to comment.

I've been busy in a good way. It's still pretty cold for Spring but there are good days too when the sun is glorious. The birds have the right idea though. They set up a right corus in the mornings and it's good to walk through the forest when they are singing and collecting for their nests. They seem to be having a great time while doing it.

I've been working on a fresco. It's very large and is being done on sheets of canvas which will be transfered to the clients wall when complete. It will consist of marble Portor pillars with Greek caps and gold edging. The landscape is fronted by a ballustrade and a path leading into a park. The person and her dog are the client and the photo here is the underpainting in preparation for the final colours. I'm doing it in oils on canvas in my studio.













Below:
The portrait below is done in tempera on board and is in the underpainting stage here. Initially working over green grey with white tempera for the tonal values in the painting. Once dry this will receive a series of transparent oil glazes to add colour & bring life. The light passes through the glazes and reflects off the underpainting. It's a beautiful and mysterious way of working and you can concentrate on the values seperate to the colour. So you have the chance to create a much richer and harmonious painting. It takes longer of course :) C'est la vie.




















I've also been doing a lot of drawings lately but don't have them scanned in. Happy with them though. Especially the very fast ones. You can create dozens or even hundreds of drawings over a period of months but it's rare to find one that will stand on it's own as a proper piece of work. This doesn't have to be particularly finished or shaded or 'worked up' in any sense. It has to have a sense of harmony and sometimes you will get a series of these all at the same time. It's rare though. I got a series of these last week which I'm pleased with.

So if you see a drawing with no real detail but which just sings to you. Don't dismiss it as not being a 'finished' or as an 'uncoloured' piece of work. It's the result of a lot of work which led up to that moment. Sometimes the result of years and years of work. All of it coming out in a moment and appearing on the paper like a piece of magic. Preserved like a butterfly pinned to a board. Don't pin butterflys to boards. Drawings are much more earth friendly.

Pride and Driving

I'm a grown adult. 40 years of age and I can proudly state that I have done my best to not damage the environment through use of a car in my life. Till yesterday. I took my first driving lesson with my wife beside me giving me directions on how the car works. It was remarkably easy and we didn't almost kill anything.

So why now? I live in the countryside outside of Paris and often have to nip into the city with work or to colect materials. Large paintings or even a series of large paintings under the arm are not a great idea on the train especially during rush hour.

So what now? Am I going to pollute, pollute, pollute in the name of art? I don't think so!

Trips in the car will be rare. I still don't like cars much, or at all really. As well as that, in April we are visiting a company in Lyon who manufacture a car that runs on air. Yes! Air!

It's been in production for a while and was first shown at the Paris car show in 2002. It was a bit of a put...put...put machine back then but aparently, has improved a lot. If it hasn't we won't go near it.

It goes 200K on compressed air and after that the fuel kicks in, which is vegatable oil, diesel or petrol. Someones got to try them out!

You can be sure that if it's good I'll post more info here about it. I reckon the hydro car is going to cost a fortune initially so while that's getting over itself we'll drive this and keep things clean.

That or stick to the diesl that we have at the moment.

March-portrait and landscape.

There's a lot happening at the moment. I'm working on a large painting for a client in Paris. It's very large so I have to do it on several sheets of canvas and then join them together. More on that later, when it's finished perhaps.

In the meantime I've done a nice portrait and a desert landscape.

The landscape is a wedding gift, from the bride to the groom. A nice idea. He spent some time in the desert and loved it so much that he speaks about it quiet often. This took over a week to complete. It's a large canvas. Not done from life unfortunately.



















The other is a portrait of a young girl. She has a rich dark brown skin, like a chestnut just out of it's shell. It shines in the softest of sunshine. She has modeled for six hours for this portrait. It requires a little more work and I'm looking forward to finishing it.

The landscape is done in traditional oils and the portrait is done in tempera.

Saraha 2

I painted this desert scene in June of last year. It happened quiet quickly and I was pleased with it. In October I looked at it again and realised that it was a little flat looking. This is often the case after some time has passed.

So I did a little more work on it.
Because I found a buyer and wanted a record of it I made a scan. Only yesterday I had the chance to see the two side by side.
It's amazing to see the two together and how much more dimension the new version has. It's good to leave a painting to sit for a while and let the painter mature a little.

Climate Change

PARIS, Feb. 2 — In a grim and powerful assessment of the future of the planet, the leading international network of climate scientists has concluded for the first time that global warming is “unequivocal” and that human activity is the main driver, “very likely” causing most of the rise in temperatures since 1950.

Please read here.

Life drawing

It's taken a while to find a location for life drawing. There are some famous drawing groups in Paris but they tend to be very full of people so it's not so interesting. Recently I was invited to join a small group of artists at an atelier. There are four of us once a week and the space is good and big. Nice energy there and big windows with good light. The model is excellent.
Here are some drawings from the last session. Each took about 20 minutes.




This is the atelier. Nice big windows. Nice light.

Environmental concerns? Find out more.

http://www.climatecrisis.net/

This video is vital information on the future of the planet.

Christmas 2006

Christmas 2006 was a very good Christmas.
We spent it with Amelies parents in the south of France. It was good for many reasons but mostly because nither of us worked during the time and I could communicate well in French with family and friends who didn't speak English. On previous visits I needed to have an interpretator or to stumble through conversation. Finally I feel like I am in France.

The weather was uncommonly mild. The mistral didn't blow in from the Mediterranean and there was no snow. I could walk in teeshirt and jeans without worrying about the cold. I'm very warm blooded most of the time so that's not so unusual. However I saw some flys and
other surprising out of season elements.

It was very beautiful. We went hill walking and visited some of the mountain fortresses from Pre Roman times.

There was the usual amazing feasts which only the french can do. Eating for six hours straight and looking like you've just finished a salad is no longer a surprise to me. I can't do it though.

They tell me that they only eat soup for weeks after these events to get back into shape. Wine and dark chocolate are part of this diet. It's remarkable to me. Irish people don't think about food the way the french do at all.

There was lots of inspiration there. Beautiful light and amazing architecture. The landscape is wonderful. Many paintings and drawings will come from this.

The Norman Rockwell Museum

While I was in the states I met up with a lot of friends. Among them are the Tolkes. Some of the nicest people I know. Cathleen and Barbara are in this photo with me outside of the Norman rockwell Museum. It was an amazing experience. I never thought I would get a chance to visit here. Thanks to them I did. He was a fantastic artist. Really, really fantastic.

Apres Expo

Oh my head. I hope everyone else woke up feeling the way I do. That is, I hope they had a good time :)
There was a great turn out last night. About least sixty people came from those we invited and a couple of people wandered in from Bastile because they had just come from another vernissage. Thursday is a very popular evening for exhibition openings. Thanks to everyone who came. It was a great evening. Not easy being the host and answering questions and pouring wine all evening, all at the same time. Perhaps next time I'll get someone else to take care of the wine and food side of things.

Paris Exhibition

Carlton Arms-North Wall

Some more friends and the painting on the north wall of the tombs etc.

Behind Ron, Barbara, Katz, Hugho and Ariel is the bar on the first floor of the hotel. The bar is an actual guest room. It has to been seen to be believed.

Carlton Arms-Some details

The godess painting (Aisling withthe Apple branch) on the left and some friends (my brother is the one with the beard and no hat) in front of the reception area of the Carlton arms.

Carlton Arms-Room complete

We had a great evening last Monday. The room is finished and I've been invited back next year to do another.
It's a great place and I felt right at home.

On Monday the party was great and went on till very late. Lots of friends came from far and wide and the guests in the hotel joined in. The Carlton Arms knows how to throw a party.

I'm sorry that I didn't take more photos of the event but I'll post the few that I have later. There's a sense of anti-climax now that it's over but I had a great time.
I return to France on Friday. New York is great.

Latest Update

Latest update. Looking good for Monday. Carpets coming in in the morning and the last minute touchups after that. Lots of little grass stalks to paint between now and then.

Party

If you are reading this post you are invited to a party at the Carlton Arms hotel to celebrate the completion of the room. It's Monday 4th of December 6-10pm, 160 East 25th street. The red door on the corner. What rooms of the hotel are not occupied are party space.

See you there :)

Tom

The painting in the Carlton Arms is going well. I've got the guts of 2 walls done. Lot's more to do of course but here are two sections that are almost finished. I discovered that Banksty has done a room here and a wall of one hall too. Good company.

New York-indisposed

Hi
I won't be available for assignments from the 14th of November to the 7th of December. I'm painting/decorating a room in a New York hotel. There's a site below that gives you a short history of the place. I'll be staying there and exploring New York and it's surroundings in the time that I have free. Thankfully I've found a good place to go for lifedrawing. I'm really looking forward to it. After Paris, New York is my favourite city.

If anyone wants to call me using a local number in New York, there is a telephone number on my website. I'll always be contactable through that.

http://www.newyorkhotelstory.com/swf/flashFrameset.cfm

FIAC II

This is an image I like. The sculpture of the man and someone that looks like he could have been the model. Perhaps that's Erwin Wurm himself. This piece had a price tag of €85,000.

On the right:
The sculpture of the woman posing with the exagerated perspective is something that you normally see only in paintings or illustrations for comics. It's the first time I've ever seen the like in a 3D object. It works. Wang Du made several of these which were on exhibition.

Interestingly most of the sculptures are cast in resin, making multiple copies possible. But it also suggests that most people accept that plastics are more stable than bronze and will last for hundreds of years. Bad for the environment but good for art.

Fiac

Today and yesterday I visited the work on show at FIAC. The contemporary art fair held once a year in Paris. To my surprise, I really enjoyed it. There was a lot of very good work. Some was surprising and there definately seems to be a two tiered system at work. In the FIAC Louvre exhibition the work is not so dynamic, if at all. The impression you get is a mix of student work and pretty good images or sculpture. It wasn't really impressive and almost put me off visiting the FIAC at the Grand Palais. I did enjoy the buzz at the Louvre though. There was some really bad, cheap looking, shock orientated/attempted stuff there. Bit sad.

The Grand Palais was a completely different affair. The Palais itself is an amazing building. So the setting was perfect for this event. As I entered the first thing I was drawn to was an exhibition of paintings in the gallery Landau (to the right in the photo). It has contemporary work with feet firmly planted in classical. Sometimes painting mixed with photography. Other pieces of glass sculpture which are abstract and interesting. The rest of the galleries had very impressive work too. Some excellent combinations of sculpture and painting to create optical illusions, others with very daring pieces of art.

Observing the body language of dealers was especially interesting. Some seemed to be almost like accountants, dressed in suits and lost in their computers, calculating the value of the work based on the insecurity of the stockmarket. Others were genuinely relaxed and aware, very human with the people they encountered. Particularly the Parisian galleries. I was impressed by the dealers and the work they had on display. Everything from latex abstract sculptures to beautiful portraits and digital prints (going for enormous amounts of money). It was a very worth while two days of exploration. I'll post more photos, perhaps.