Katie Holten in Manhattan

The evening after arriving, the 28th I went to visit Katie Holtens Exhibition in Manhattan. I'd seen her work a couple of years previously at a really good exhibition in Paris and wanted to see what she was up to now.

The work is a continuation of the theme which she has been diligently working on over the last few years. In the rooms of the first floor gallery she created a sculpted interior forest of dark, tar like trees stripped of their colour and leaves. They lined the walls in one room and in another took center stage. Her studies of withered leaves, in drawn form, covered the walls of the halls and other rooms.

There were a good few people there. In fact it was hard to get in but Katie personally made everyone welcome. Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grunert is a nice welcoming gallery on the corner of 19th street and 9th avenue. The full address is 148, 9th Avenue, Floor 2, NY, NY 10011
Phone 212.807.9494
www.gassergrunert.net

The ArtBreak Expo

So I dropped in the painting to the gallery on the morning of the 28th and had a peek at the work before it went up. Really impressive. There's a lot of good stuff here.

The gallery itself is enormous, white walls etc, as you would expect. Of course it was in a state before the opening but that's normal. It has good partitions and is really well lit with large windows and great location on a street with five other galleries so it's a good draw for collectors.

On the night of the opening it was in ship shape condition. The crowd arrived early and there were lots of them. Because most of the artists are from Europe, very few could be there but some very interesting contributors did turn up. We learnt more of the history of the place and I can't overstate the lengths that these people have gone to to make art a part of their lives. they are living testaments to what is meant by patrons of the arts. Here are a few photos but I'll post more later.

Very tired after a hard nights debate with other creative people. Oh, here's a shot of Banksy's work.

The Golden Rules

I'm flying to New York in a few hours to exhibit in the Artbreak gallery in Williamsburg with Banksy.

We'll will be showing our art for one month and I hope to ruffle a few feathers and make a noise with this piece called 'The Golden Rules'. It depicts, well you know, 'him', surrounded by his staff, and getting advice from places he shouldn't.

It's a statement on the influence on government by outside interests. The influence of church on state, of business on national policy, on who's really running the country, or who you voted for, without knowing you were voting for them.

The corporate priest is a reflection of the fact that churches in America are basicly a business, seen by many as a tax haven, a place that you can put your dollars and write it off a against tax while basking in the glow of spiritual and community respect or getting the church to act as a mouth piece in promoting your point of view.

The girl in rose pink represents the original settlers and she holds the constitution of the United States in her hands. She's not getting a lot of respect from 'him' in the painting. Lip service galore but no respect. The Mayflowers name was taken from the Epigea repens or Trailing Arbutus, a white and pink flower which has a four petal structure. Hense the colour of her costume.

The 'gag' of the monkeys speaks for itself, hear nothing, see nothing, say nothing. The painting is, oils on canvas with raised lettering and gold leaf. It will be showing in the ArtBreak Gallery for one month from the 29th of March till the 29th of April. The grand opening is on 29th of March from 3pm till 9pm. The address is 195 Grand street, 2nd floor. Williamsburg NY 11211. Tel: 01-718 302 1021

Toms paintings are hanging in the Greenlane gallery in Dingle and the Zozimus gallery in Dublin. To learn more visit his website and/or subscribe to his newsletter. http://www.tjbyrne.com

The Hague Summer Art Exhibiton

The Red Cross, Hague Summer exhibition are looking for artists to exhibit their work this year. There is a link here if you are interested in submitting work.

One of the themes is 'Victims of Armed Conlict'.

They also have a section of their website which promotes the artists works before the event. I'm honored to be the first artist that they chose for the artist of the week.

It only lasts a week so have a look at http://www.artenade.com/hague/ArtistOfTheWeek.aspx

Portrait in tempera

To zoom in on the details in this painting click here.


Here's a photo of a painting that I did in two sessions last week. The first layer is a tempera and the second is oil. One over the other. The basic ingredients of the tempera and the oil are the same. Except that the tempera has the egg added. You do it all yourself, from dissolving the resin, mixing the ground pigment to thickening the oil in the sun for a few weeks. It's that process of being in touch with the materials that makes the painting very personal.

The model was very pleased with the painting too and took a photo of me at work. He's asked me not to post a photo of him beside it but I'm sorely tempted. Anyway here is the painting. It's not finished. There is more to do on it but I want the current paint to dry first, in a couple of weeks.

Exhibition update-Greenlane Gallery

There are four paintings which are on show in the Greenlane Gallery in Dingle, Co. Kerry this month.

They are:

Garcon
Shopping
Negotiations
The Lovers Whisper

I'm very pleased about this because Dingle is one of those special places in the world. It was a pivotal place of change for me several years ago, before I decided to move to France. I was on an artists retreat with some American artists who came over from New Haven. I thought that there would be more Irish artists too but in fact I was the only one.

It rained and rained for two weeks without ceasing. Despite this we walked and explored every day and wrote,talked, painted and went out over the sea to the Blasket Islands. It was boot camp for creatives and I loved it. Thanks to Caoimhghin O'Fraithile, our indestructible & madcap artist guide, we visited many amazing, artistic and historical locations in Dingle and the ring of Kerry. It was formative. The Greenlane gallery, which was in a different building then also opened my eyes to the freshness and purity of the kind of art that a location like Dingle can produce. So it's great to have my work on show there and it's a great gallery.

Exhibitions, shows, competitions and fairs.

Events for 2008
Exhibitions, shows, competitions and fairs. This is a preliminary outline of what is happening in 2008. There will be much more as the year gets going and I'm looking forward to discovering what new things present themselves.

At the moment there are four paintings on show at the Zomimus Gallery in Dublin.

Blue Man, is a painting of a nude holding a ball of gold. He is blue to represent the electric energy of his potential. The gold ball is the focus of that potential. It's painted in oils with gold leaf on canvas.

The Cry, a painting of a mans mouth screaming. My own personal interpretion for this painting is related to the earth but perhaps there is some other inner, unvoiced reason.


Saviour III, a painting of a bird, not in flight but in ascent. His eyes are closed and he is surrendered.

Knight is a painting of a friend riding her horse. She is a horse whisperer in fact. The youngest qualified in France for this unusual profession. Her relationship to the horse is close to the ideal.

The new paintings, which I've uploaded, have the ability to be zoomed in upon. You can see the tiny details of brush strokes when you click on the image and zoom into the area of the painting that you find the most interesting. Try it out and let me know if you like it.


March: My work is on show in New York. The Carlton Arms Gallery in Brooklyn, 29th of March.

March: I'm entering the BP portrait awards in London. It is one of the most prestigious awards with artists from all over the world delivering work for consideration. http://www.npg.org.uk/live/bpmenu.asp

May: I am exhibiting in London at the Batersea Art fair from 16th to the 18th May 2008. http://www.bcaf.info/index.htm

June and July: This summer my paintings will be on show at, Nutshuis, the Hague, the Netherlands, between 7th of June and 5th of July. http://www.thehague.nl/default.asp?id=DOORWAYNEWS-uk

November 2008: The Irish artists Compendium Awards. This is the second award from The Irish Artists Compendium. The ceremony takes place in November but voting is a year long process. Last years was a great success and very good for the profile of Irish artists. It is organised by John Ryan. The award is judged in two stages. The first stage is public and there is a prize of EU500 awarded to ten voters drawn from those who voted for any of the twenty shortlisted artists will each receive a €500 prize. You can enter for the cash prize and out more and register by going to this link. http://www.irishartcompendium.com/awards_home.php

Saviour is sold

Thank you for your enquiries. The Saviour painting has sold. It was purchased in Zozimus gallery in Dublin for EU2,000.

Saviour II

To see this painting in real life, visit Gallery Zozimus,
56, Francis Street, Dublin 8, Ireland.

It's a drawing in charcoal with a glaze of oil paint. The blue is painted in tempera.

It's called 'Saviour II'. You can interpret it any which way that you want but for me it has a very complex and personal, environmental meaning. In so far as we are all a part of the environment and if we don't make ourselves aware of the little parts that make up the whole we are effectively crucifying ourselves and everything else.

Exhibition of paintings in the Kennedy Gallery, Dublin

Hi
These are two of my paintings which are showing at the Kennedy Gallery, Dublin.

One is called, 'After the Hay' and is a painting in tempera and oil. It's a painting of fields in Brittany, after the Monks of Timadec have cut the long grass and bailed it. 80cm x 64cm

The other is a painting called 'Brittany fields' and is a similar view. It's also in tempera and oil. 80cm x 80cm


There is a vernissage/opening this evening (29th of November) at 7pm. The address is M. Kennedy & Sons Ltd, 12 Harcourt St, Dublin 2. You'll find the exhibition on the first floor. Enjoy the wine and cheese.

Tom

Art en Capital

The entrance.


Yong Man Kwon, from south Korea now living in the south of France.


View of Korean works and statues by Yvone Cleragerue.


I also visited Art en Capital yesterday. It took place in the Grand Palais des Champs Elysees, Paris.
This is an annual event. An exhibition of artists who are not represented by galleries and who live and work in the centre of Paris.
The first thing that strikes you is the enormous number of artists that are in Paris who are eager to exhibit but who are not represented. The exhibition had several hundred artists. It's very confusing to see this exhibition because there is no jury process and as such you have very good work placed beside not very good work. On the other hand, as the organisers say, the public decides what is good or not.

If you want to, you can reserve an entire 9m stand for your work which protects it from landing beside the work of someone that won't compliment it. It's a bit expensive but as there are thousands of art buyers attending the investment is a good one and great marketing. A lot better value than a particular, Irish art fair, at half the price.

There was some terrific work there. Particularly from visiting Asian artists. Their levels of skill and focus are impressive. In huge contrast with European artists there is an energy and daring in the work that is very strongly restrained. It feels like a wild horse that has been, barely tamed and is only holding itself back enough to perform for a particular moment. Unlike a lot of European art where the artists almost seem bored or going through the motions in their work.

The Asian artists have a lot of academic background and training yet they also have this fierce energy to get out there and express something bigger, better, brighter and stronger. Bursting out of the restraints of their academic training and using that famous focused intensity.

Icons

Yesterday, after setting up in the atelier in Bastile, I visited two exhibitions that I had been curious about. One was in Nation. An exhibition by an Icon Painter who studied in Greece. The exhibition took place in a small gallery on the second floor of the Centre Culturel Franco-Japonais, 8 Passage Turqueti, 75011 Paris. Metro -Nation. The artist is Dominique Groffe.

The artist has reproduced paintings of icons on wood using gold and tempera (egg). I'm interested in this because it's a subject that I'm studying at the moment. By doing the course you learn an enormous amount about the history of painting (as far back as the Egyptians) and you discover some of the most unlikely mediums with which you can paint and which last for thousands of years.

Although I like the artists ability to recreate the icons of past artists, I didn't see anything new being explored in the work. Creating an icon where the subject is religious is like a prayer for many people. A meditation and study of past works and as such gives a great deal of personal pleasure. The original images are full of hidden meanings as well and were not merely decorations. So that is also a study of history in itself.

It's fantastic to see this kind of work still being done. Otherwise it just disappears forever.

Site Update

Hi
My art website is updated. http://www.tjbyrne.com
It took 3 days non stop to do it. There is a lot of new work that needed to be edited and put online.
I'm using Freeway pro. A great piece of software that only works on a Mac and I'm doing it on my new,
tiny, easy to transport, 13" MacBook. It's surprisingly good but I'm still using my 17 inch laptop for the graphics
work as the MacBook doesn't have the neccesary graphics card to make it hum. I bought it mostly for easy
access to a wi-fi signal and it's lightness but I'm generally surprised by how powerful it is.

Have a look http://www.tjbyrne.com and let me know what you think.

Vernissage-Pre Ireland

http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
Well I'm heading off to Ireland next week and looking forward to meeting all the other artists at Art Ireland. It should be a great time, though I've no doubth, hard work. There won't be a chance for a vernissage or anything like that so we decided to have one here in our house before leaving France.

We needed a good excuse to clean up properly anyway. Things were a little dustier than expected but we managed to turn the house into a gallery for one evening. Have to say, that I'm really amazed and pleased by how many friends and neighbours turned up. It was a full house! Bursting at the seams! We had a great time and the preparation was well worth it. Terrible hangover the next morning. Must have been all the talking. Shouldn't talk and drink at the same time.

Anyway here are some photos. If you are coming to Art Ireland between November 16th-18th drop into stand Q2 and say hello.

Tom

FIAC 2007

This Year Fiac was hampered by the massive strike by the RATP. Despite this, FIAC was very well attended. All trains, metro, bus and RER were out on strike. There was literally no transport for either Thursday or Friday in or around Paris. Amazingly the Parisians didn't take offense despite the serious inconvenience. Instead they got onto their bikes, into their cars or put on their walking shoes and got on with it. There is an enormous amount of sympathy for the strikers and people believe that tolerating the events is for the greater good. Powerful attitude! The French are great at acting on principle or putting a concept before personal desires.

Art Fair time

All over Europe the art fairs are kicking in. If you were to go to all of them and have art in all of them you would have to be a prolific Octopus. Not likely! So you can visit them anyway. It's a lot of fun. In London there is the Frieze art fair. That can be a bit expensive to start collecting from but it's a great location to mix in the energy of the arts and meet galleries and artists. With the prices being limited only by your imagination.

But if you want to start somewhere more accessible there is the Affordable Art Fair which is on at the same time. You can artist spot at this event. Compare the prices of the artists work today and see how much you can guess they will be worth next year, or even if they will still be creating.

Usually it's easy enough to spot those that are in it for the long haul, or to put it more aptly, those that converse with the muse. My work is at the Arlev Art Gallery, Stand D4, Battersea Park, London. http://www.affordableartfair.co.uk/visitor.html

Here's a video of the Frieze fair. An insiders look at starting a collection of art.
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/video/2007/oct/12/frieze.collecting

In a couple of weeks the Fiac fair will be here in Paris and I'll do my own report on that here. Last year it was very intense. The crowds were impressive and some of the creations on show was really insightful and from time to time, eye popping.

There are alternative shows in Paris at the same time. Galleries that decided not to close up to do the show attract a lot of the overflow. The FIAC attracts collectors from all over the world who want to see Paris as well as the show so this is a very good place to expose your work.

On line programme-Ireland

Here's a great programme on Ireland that you can watch online. It discusses the changes coming to Ireland. It's a good show and a fair view on the state of play at the moment. I think that David McWilliams has some great points.

http://www.rte.ie/tv/thegenerationgame/prog1.html

Nuit Blanche

Last Saturday (6th October) night was Nuit Blanche in Paris. Everyone stays up all night and parties. That's the theory. This year it was a little different. This year France won against the all blacks in Cardiff, well done the French!!

I thought Parisians were pretty restrained. There was a little dancing in the streets and all the cars honked their horns. If the same thing happened in Ireland there wouldn't have been any sleep for a week.

So, normally Nuit Blanche is an artistic and cultural event that involves the museums staying open all night and much artistic performance in the streets and squares of the city. She has 20,000 artists to call upon for such events. This year the city's display was really exceptional. There was a lot to see and it would take many postings to describe everything. We had a good time. Great people and great art in a city that really gets into the groove of the theme.

Whats up?

It's been very busy here for the last few weeks. I'm writing this post to take time out of the things that need doing. I've also noticed that gardening recharges the creative batteries very well, to my surprise and delight.

So, why have I been so busy and what is busy.

I think that things have kicked in because the other big project has been properly completed and is now no longer at the front / back of my brain. We spent the summer enjoying where we are and also doing what had to be done before the new Montessori school year restarted but that wasn't a huge deal. Two weeks of repairs, carpentry and bits and bobs. It doesn't seem like the big stress thing that it used to be and it isn't. The parents and the children are happy and so is Amelie. She's even finally earning a salary. People never believe that you may not take a salary in your first year of starting a new business just to make sure the ship stays afloat but it's quiet common. So that's effectively done! The school is autonomous and a new generation of better educated children sallies forth.

Which leaves me mentally and emotionally free to create my own world and that's what's happening.
In the last few weeks lots of new opportunites have presented themselves and I've grasped the thistle, as they say.

During the summer I painted a lot. Experimenting in new methods, doing a lot of work out of doors from life, doing a lot of drawing in my atelier, with my wife as the model. Then the phone started ringing.

Can I represent you at the London Affordable Art fair this October?

Would you consider taking part in the Art Ireland Exhibition in November?

Would you like to be represented in a new gallery opening this December, in Williamsburg, New York?

Yes!

In short:

Thursday 18 - Sunday 21 October
My work on sale at the London Affordable Art Fair.
Arlev Art Gallery, Stand D4, Battersea Park, London. http://www.affordableartfair.co.uk/visitor.html

From the 16th - 18th November 07, My work will be at stand Q3 of the
Art Ireland Exhibition in the RDS, Dublin, Ireland.

In December my paintings will go on show in an, as yet, unnamed gallery in Williamshire, Brooklyn, NY, USA.

More coming soon.

Busy, means painting a lot and other creative endevours. I still have a lot of work to do before the exhibitions this year but the work is developing well and I'm happy with it. I'll post some of the recent paintings and perhaps a film of the painting process later.

The weather has improved here too, thank goodness.

The Cry of the Earth

Surrealism?

This image came to my mind several years ago and I made a drawing. It has continued to come to my mind as the terrible effects of man made climate change wreck havok on the world. The planet will survive ultimately but as it attempts to cleanse itself of the cause of the damage a lot of ecosystems and species will be destroyed.

Something to ponder.

Tempera and oils on board.