01/04/25
02/04/25
“Trauma = fragmented memories / flashbacks.”
05/04/25
‘A Brush with… Celia Paul.’
Rembrandt’s eye’s defy death!
Sketchbook work early in the day. Paint out - let’s go!
“Art is how you give form to your deepest instincts.”
Celia Paul
A really solid start to “Uniform Hate”. Basic background colours and tones down.
“Self-Portrait between clouds” - using shape inherited from previous composition underneath as elements of the background. Perhaps a little more tonal subtlety - too contrasty at the present time.
Overall, a good day in the studio.
08/04/25
the week off was great, bar some setbacks.
… a little overwhelmed… just need to breathe, take a step back and be thorough in the work at hand. Only mentioning as a little vent was needed as well as reasserting that it’s ok not to get own work done every once in a while. Frustrating, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. It’ll be ok.
Stuart Calvin at the Golden Thread - Stay a while - Great! The work sits in that strange space between fragility and hope. The draped, almost human form reminds me of the cloaked figure in Ferdinand Hodler’s ‘Night’ - grief / fear made solid. Here, there’s the possibility of (neon) light creeping in Definitely one to stay a while with!
12/24/25
Fire on the Glenshane
13/04/25
Studio with Imogen and then onto own work. Building up self-portrait study. Back and forth and back again…
…well, that didn’t go as planned! Back to the drawing board.
16/04/25
An awful morning.
Presentation of commission - nice words and thoughtful comments.
17/04/25
“Decoys and Ghosts” in the Golden Thread by John Rainey. Vibrant, playful and quietly unsettling body of work. Fantastical morphings of classical figures and animal forms reimagined with vivid colour and bolt, unexpected shifts in anatomy. Sculptures feel like artefacts from another planet - cheeky, strange and incredibly precise. The traditional bust is unpicked and reshaped into something wholly new.
See H’s book for feedback / homework. Not for these pages!
19/04/25
I know with the utmost certainty that this will not be an easy or quick fix.
21/04/25
Studio time.
Brought little self-portrait back from the brink of the abyss. I think working from the sketch which was done at the time in the early pandemic (where head was shaved at home!) is throwing off what is in my own mind / self-image. Perhaps that should be the advantage? Beard too generous.
Imogen’s D entry - 21/04/25
23/04/25
![“Tilt [At Windmills]” exhibition in CCA, Derry](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a9c08aa372b9620b4f4faf4/1640622093997-GMSKOQ4ZB3OI7SNKUN2T/11g.jpg)
