RDH: MAY 2024

02/05/24

Late Night Art Belfast

Hit The North

'Smoke' Leopold Kessler and Shiro Masuyama at PS Squared

Áine Gordon - Arcade Studios

‘This Is Not a Chair’ by Maya Todd at DAS

FGB at Vault Studios

A busy busy night!

05/05/24

Added crow / plague mask to soldier’s face. Not sure where, if anywhere, it’s going to go. Ran it’s course perhaps? Palette cleansed.

…action painting?

08/05/24

“Gallery Visit” showing in ArtFest 3!

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.

09/05/24

Would be good to start thinking about plan…

10/05/24

12/05/24

Drawings to acetate. Cuprinol spillage - use to benefit? Bleached out wartime work - it reached the end. So, today in the studio - rather than painting… worked on drawing up new canvases. NB: Paint needed through the week.

Three works started - went for a dander in a thundery downpour holding a couple of the new canvases over my head. Letting the heavy raindrops move the unfixed charcoal. Funny, the momento mori could have done with a few more and the ‘Tesla’ a little less. HINDSIGHT!

Studio Shot - 12/05/24

12/05/24

Hold the family close. Bus decompress time.

18/05/24

19/05/24

20/05/24

If you’re going to do something, do it right!

26/05/24

“Week in Art” Mona Lisa interview really interesting. “The living earth”.

“Talk Art” Shaqúelle Whyte.

Solid progress. No titles as yet - Hindsight? Could work for all three really.

29/05/24

Dublin.

'Sun, Waiting for Flawless' in Project Art Centre

Deirdre O'Mahony's 'The Quickening' at the Douglas Hyde

Bernadette Doolan at the LAB

Chloe Austin at the LAB

Hazel O'Sullivan at the LAB

It’s always sunny in Dublin.

RDH: 01/08/18 - 31/08/18

01/08/18

Blog generally.

03/08/18

Work wrapped and ready.

Confessional - portrait through mesh?

installational idea - structural notes on seat.  Guidelines for penance.

"The Ash Wednesday Supper" by Giordano Bruno - 1584

Michael Simpson - think of your 'style' as developing a language; coherent and your own without being stylised.

04/08/18

'Real Artists Don't Starve' by Jeff Goins

Agendas in the work?  Activism? Does it need to have a message?

CNIP Meeting in CCA Derry went really well.

At the Gates of the Music Palace by Alex Cecchetti.  Curated by Mary Cremin - VOID Derry

05/08/18

RUA works dropped off.

"As a painter you constantly want to overcome your virtuosity, but at the same time you strive for virtuosity" - Per Kirkeby

06/08/18

Bits that work and bits that don't.

08/08/18

Been offered to show work in New York City!!!

09/08/18

Stiffen the Sinews, Summon up the blood. - King Henry in William Shakespeare's 'Henry V'

The above is written on the studio wall of Maggi Hambling (Tateshots).  Some sketching done.

11/08/18

Average Buzzard wingspan = 110 - 140cm.  Overlap red silhouette of bird with rabbit skull.  Any black in the skull should remain the red of the buzzard.  Don't overwhelm foundation of composition.

No where fast with this. Not happy with tones at the minute but it can be pulled back.

Will get a good push in the studio tomorrow.  At the same time if I rush at it, that's when it is more likely to fall apart.  If it happens, it happens..

12/08/18

On the ropes. Really badly on the ropes.

Life-sized buzzard started.

Triggers: words, memories, looks, objects?

13/08/18

"Happiness is like an orgasm - it doesn't really last." - Raqib Shaw

14/08/18

Reading 'Oedipus at Colonus' to get a better grip.  "...further into darkness with every step".

15/08/18

Just realised how I went about the 'Oedipus' painting in the first place ... shading down on charcoal and fix + light transparent wash to unify all the tones.  Once dry, pop in colours and detail accordingly,  How did I forget?!

16/08/18

...waiting on submission is tortuous.

17/08/18

A strange seed.

Trying very hard not to get ahead of myself.

Sketchbook work.

18/08/18

Studio shot. "A Manifold and Truly Glorious Strife" (left) brought back from the brink.

20/08/18

Roasted Crane = culinary symbol of Irish submission.  Breaking of legs before being thrown into the sea.  The Pale - area above Dublin. (beyond the pale saying). Notes from episode 2 of "Story of Ireland". 

OH DEAR.  Painful.  What a difference a day makes.  Twenty four little hours.  Three things looking good and they all come crashing down.

22/08/18

A shitty week but it will be OK.  Shouldn't have let it affect me as much as it did.  Got blindsided and took eye off longer focus and objectives.  Onward.

Trying out new things.

23/08/18

Grayson Perry's "Rites of Passage" episode on death really got to me.  A lot of people would give an arm and a leg to have that last conversation with a loved one - what they meant to you and what you mean to them - before they pass.

24/08/18

Prioritise / Lists - allow for flexibility.

25/08/18

A large (and very unfortunate) spider met it's end some time ago.

Bit of an overhaul on "Procession Study" today.  Clouds were OK but too noisy.  Back and forth with it today.  Looking more like a study now.  A little looser.

Blocked in rough colours for "Afore the Stoop";

26/08/18

Good progress on this today. Am I getting too caught up on those bloody hands and ignoring the rest of the canvas? Probably.

27/08/18

'Nemo Malus nisi probetur' roughly translates to 'No one is evil until it is proven'.

28/08/18

Bank Buildings in Belfast city centre completely gutted by fire.

Above:  Some shots of the Golden Thread Gallery's two simultaneous solo exhibitions:  Travis Somerville's "Homeland Insecurity" and Ian Cumberland's "a common fiction".

"Art Practice as fictioning (or myth-science) by Simon O'Sullivan.

29/08/18

A group show in London?  GT meet up yesterday was great.  Hearing what folks have been up to and where they are going.  Some feedback from sculptural ideas from friends was positive.

"Procession Study" finished. Can a study be finished?

30/08/18

Cat is missing.

31/08/18

An application was successful so there will be two solo shows - one in 2019 and one in 2020!