RDH: NOVEMBER 2022

05/11/22

Art and Ecology Podcast.

Studio Time with an assistant!

08/11/22

Painting in RUA has SOLD!

11/11/22

It all adds up.

12/11/22

“You know in the back of your own mind if criticism holds any merit for yourself.”

13/11/22

Studio time - short but sweet stint today. Good progress on three pieces. A little too on the nose in some areas but very productive otherwise.

17/11/22

VAI Get Together day 2. Highlight was listening to Samir Mahmood talk about his practice.

19/11/22

Progress on “Feeling Stretched” and “Red Lines”. Getting there. Colour choices needing a tweak though.

20/11/22

Belfast trip with the family. Ulster Museum - Renaissance to Romanticism. Brueghel the Younger pieces very good and the Goya portrait on display is a special painting.

Great to get up with Jan and Imogen to see the RUA again.

26/11/22

Shocked and saddened to hear of Hugh O’Donnell’s passing. I got to know Hugh in applying for funding in 2018 and again in the run up to my solo show in Atypical in 2020.

Hugh was always so kind with his time - having a studio visit beforehand and his feedback and insight during the install was a dream. Hugh was a real presence and his life blessed all who spent time with him. Rest in Piece Hugh.

30/11/22

Priorities shifted about.

RDH: APRIL 2021

01/04/21

“A Brush With… Ali Banisadr” - audio-visual synesthesia.

02/04/21

Palette is cleaned and managed to get some good work on “On Gilded Steps”.

03/04/21

Added some gold aerosol for the edges of the steps. So close to finishing it up. Very frustrating as last week one of the figures that was working the best is now the last piece of the puzzle yet to fit.

05/04/21

“On Gilded Steps” finished!

09/04/21

…apparently it was coming but it was a jolt and now a growing sense of uncertainty.

10/04/21

“Seven Types of Ambiguity” by William Empson.

Ambiguity has to be purposeful, holding multiple elements in suspension - that’s when the ambiguity works and has a function.

11/04/21

Such a leap from what was happening last year.

12/04/21

Catch up on webinars. Is ‘brand’ a dirty word?

13/04/21

Episode 27 of “Jo’s Art History Podcast” is live! Always strange to listen to yourself back but I really did enjoy the chat with Jo.

Some good sketchbook work tonight.

14/04/21

Re-watching Rego Documentary.

“Gathering Thoughts” gathering momentum.

16/04/21

Quick run to Belfast to lift “Hotel ‘78” from the RUA.

17/04/21

Studio work: less will be more with “G.T.”. Progress made but very slowly. I could have ploughed on this evening but I thought it was best to quit for the day while I was ahead.

19/04/21

“Leonardo" on Prime. Fast and loose with facts but still fun to watch.

22/04/21

Yesterday saw a long overdue clear-out of the office and the start of a fresh lick of paint.

25/04/21

I think I’ve taken “Gathering Thoughts” as far as I can go.

27/04/21

A solemn anniversary.

28/04/21

Submissions made. Fingers crossed. Primed large canvas today which took several coats. Barrow + woman with dogs / butcher?

Starting to get excited by a piece that hasn’t even been started yet.

29/04/21

Decided against ‘woman with dogs’ and ‘butcher’ imagery and opted instead for early biplanes of the RAF. This way I can instead swap scale instead of orientation and hopefully not overcrowd the composition. The red container behind the medics should be kept and then adding the planes using tonal differences / slightly different register. There and not there. Pillers - might be best to paint them out. There will probably be remnants of them as layers are added.

30/04/21

A broken up sort of day.

RDH: 01/11/18 - 30/11/18

02/11/18

… all but done…

03/11/18

Do I need a foreign colour? “Afore the Stoop” went in a slightly different direction than first thought. I think I had that quote by Helen Johnson still ringing in my ears about imagery possessing different surface qualities and being on different registers on the same picture plane.

The buzzard is still; hovering overhead while the still-life is in flux. Melting in on itself. To not just merge separate imagery on the one canvas but to treat them differently via technique. I’ve done this regularly in the past but never to this extent before and definitely not on this scale. There’s loads going on: blocked areas, melting, washes and burning/corroding of the surface for texture.

“Confessional” is a different beast altogether. It’s going to be a slower process - building up washes of colour, drawing elements back in followed by more washes until it comes to an end or a crossroads. So far so good. It’s not really a colliding of images. It’s the notion of what a negative of a pattern could do to another image.

Refreshing to see organisations opening doors. The model is being altered.

04/11/18

Kept hearing the shrieking of a buzzard every time I went to work on “Afore the Stoop”. When I looked it was perched on top of the tallest tree at the end of the lane and then glided off.

06/11/18

Some sketchbook work. Not a lot of time but that’s my fault.

09/11/18

HELP!

10/11/18

For studio work: cautious steps or daring leaps? Annoyingly close to finishing “ATS”.

Submission writing hurts my head.

11/11/18

Films to watch:

‘Deer Hunter’

‘Inland Empire’

‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer’

’Kill List’

‘Enemy’

‘Fruitvale Station’

‘Green Room’

‘Silence’

Finished “ATS”. Still bits that annoy but for the sake of not destroying it entirely, I don’t mind the imperfections.

Help has been indispensable.

12/11/18

Still waiting on magazine.

13/11/18

Egon Shiele Documentary - transcending the idea of the body as beauty.

15/11/18

Nothing.

16/11/18

Belfast bound for curator talks but looking forward to visiting some galleries first.

Jane McCormick’s “Not Half Right” at the University of Atypical was absolutely amazing. Insanely strong drawing and sculptural elements.

Nikolaus Gansterer in the MAC International 2018

Ali Cherri in the MAC International 2018. His work was the stand out work for me.

Curator talks as part of Belfast Open Studios from Visual Artists Ireland offices. Speaking at the event: Nora Hickey from CCI in Paris, Ika Sienkiewicz-Nowacka from CCA Warsaw, Dean Brierley from Caustic Coastel in Manchester and Anna Ciabach - formally of Monopol Gallery in Warsaw.

17/11/18

Work is being used as an example to show other artists about finding your own voice. Chuffed.

…someone has been keeping an eye on my progress and that is something!

Another trip to Belfast for more galleries and then a Speed Curating event.

Gerard Carson’s “Submersible Extractions” in Platform.

Patrick Colhoun at the Golden Thread Gallery.

Still of Barbara Hammer’s work at the Golden Thread Gallery exhibition.

Layout of the ‘Speed Curating’ event by VAI held in Belfast Exposed.

18/11/18

It has been a hectic but brilliant few days. Yesterday I called into Platform to see Gerard Carson’s “Submersible Extractions” and a solo show by Dryden Wilson. I followed this up by a quick look at the Barbara Hammer exhibition and Patrick Colhoun’s project space work in the Golden Thread Gallery. Then it was time for the speed curating event at Belfast Exposed.

… do research. What artists i admire….

…Strange. Nothing negative. Just nothing.

A lot of information. A real painter?

19/11/18

“In Defence of Representation” essay by Tristan Garcia.
In western philosophy the representational object is either a copy, a sign or a duplex.

“… according to the semiotic model, there is no representation without signification, that is to say without interpretation.” - Tristan Garcia

20/11/18

“Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” - Screen (1973)

“The Victim” - Saul Bellow

21/11/18

Tried sketchbook work - failed miserably.

23/11/18

Projection onto fog screen.

Beaver Moon.

24/11/18

Thunderchild?

Line of connection between viewer and work - GO’H

Ask the question: what do you see?

25/11/18

Yesterday I eventually got painting around lunchtime - back and forth with ‘Confessional’ but progress made.  Great talk with GO’H about ‘the gaze’.

Leaf blowing.

27/11/18

Need to select paintings for Framewerk Christmas show.

28/11/18

“The Trouble with Painting” - ICA (YouTube)

“What you’re interested in in the world will feed back into what you are interested in as an artist.” - Alison Pilkington

…speaking about dreams, a quote from Alison Pilkington’s drawing seminar from the RHA really stuck out.  I’m paraphrasing here but the guts of it is this:  talking to people about why you make the work you do (or about your inspirations for that matter) is like talking to people about your dreams.  People aren’t overly interested when someone else describes a dream.  It’s subjective and personal and it’s all but impossible to get the experience across properly.

Sketchbook work.

29/11/18

A difficult few weeks to come.