12/10/25

Completed ‘Kiss with a Red Flag’ - minimal touches needed - thin wash on highlights of hair and a slight change in background / freshening of the red flag / shirt. It could have been done on the second session but with elements not dry, the risk was too high of destroying any good work done to that point.

01/11/24

Pretty sure this is Dad in the Vectra circa 2000.

02/11/24

H, F & M.

…taking a back seat.

04/11/24

Escalation

05/11/24

Late night home.

06/11/24

The fun never stops!

07/11/24

Collected. No late night art for me this month. Exhaustion has taken over.

08/11/24

Proposal started. Excited to stretch and prime canvas tomorrow! Nerd Alert!

In the chaos of the past few weeks, I forgot to note that I’ve had a lovely delivery of a 10m roll of canvas and primer.

09/11/24

Didn’t realise I had so much primer! Two canvases, stretched and primed with one coat (plus one bloodied thumb).

Sketchbook time - this definitely needs time allotted to…

… came back to finish off the two drawings started earlier on. It can be done - just needs some discipline and manoeuvring.

10/11/24

‘Natural Alignments’

GET OUT THERE!

***Updating from loss and eventual return of diary***

12/11/24

Paola Bernardelli

Ted Pim

Darren Murray

MAC Show - beautiful and just a joy to immerse yoursself in. Wonderful homage.

Weird seeing D.M.’s paintings again after so long. Remember getting my graduation photos from NWRC in front of them.

17/11/24

Can’t believe I’ve lost track of RD. First time ever in fourteen plus years and quite annoyed at myself.

ADAPT - MOVE ON - WORK

Primed canvases with second coat. In terms of C’s submission, materials gathering and experimentation ongoing.

18/11/24

Dublin - Day 1. Lights out in middle of set up.

19/11/24

GTG a great success. Good night had by all.

20/11/24

Dublin Day 3. Brian Maguire in the Hugh Lane. Glorious large scale works and great to see some old favourites I first saw in VOID a few years ago.

Mariechen Danz at the Project Arts Centre - Shadows and Spines.

Douglas Hyde Gallery - ‘LAND’ group show. Beautiful video work from Pinar Öğrenci in situ - videos on display will change to change throughout the run. Tried to get into another space - was not allowed with suitcase in tow.

Lastly the LAB before the bus home. Vanessa Daws’ show inspired by endurance swimming pioneer Mercedes Gleitze. Great show but still filled me with anxiety looking at open water.

01/10/25

02/10/25

The start of a crazy month. But looking forward to LNAB later…

Craft NI - Derek Wilson

‘The Weight of Inheritance’ showing in the Royale Arcade Academy group exhibition.

PS²

Catalyst Arts

05/10/25

Deep breath…

Let’s have a go at session three for “B,W,oatS”.

A Brush with Wolfgang Tillmans - “RE-ENERGISE YOUR ARCHIVE!”

From what I can tell, the ocular device looks the part - symmetrical enough to look convincing and squ-whiff enough to be interesting.

Finished - bar Malcolm’s contribution (although I do kind of like it).

S….GF?

12/10/25

A Brush with Suzanne Jackson.

14/10/25

Visit to the MAC. Niamh Seana Meehan’s sombre textile installation that waits for you to immerse yourself.

William McKeown’s paintings of meditative light and beautifully subtle horizon lines.

Marie Hanlon and Rhona Clarke’s thought provoking work - a collaborative video installation that shines a light on the climate emergency plus Hnnlon’s sculptures of knotted glass that explores water as a resource.

19/10/25

Second session on ‘To Conjure’. Both images are fighting for dominance right now. Limiting the palette to see how this could affect this struggle and the work as a whole.

Mostly working on the large portrait element today.

22/10/25

26/10/25

Went and sat up in the studio for a while only to realise I wasn’t ready Space needed tidying up and organised so after a bit of time cleaning - it was back down to the office to work on admin updates. The boring stuff needs done too.

28/10/25

Zhanna Kadyrova in the Golden Thread Gallery’s ‘Radical Hope’ exhibition.