RDH: MAY 2020

01/05/20

Finding a new normal.

02/05/20

…so not just images / maps / diagrams but also fears: nightmares.

• Where are you?

• What’s your date of birth?

• What’s today’s date?

• Do you know why you are here?

• Who is the Prime minister?

• Lift both arms

• Push against me.

• Follow my finger.

• Any dizziness? Nausea?

A face in the clouds.

…cover the eyes.

05/05/20

VAI’s café: So good to see what Cecilia Danell is up to in lockdown.

06/05/20

Tried drawing. Didn’t go well. It’s going to take longer than first thought to get back to creative work. Super frustrating.

11/05/20

Head is so sore today. Silver lining: Jerry Saltz’s “How to Be an Artist” arrived today.

12/05/20

• …avoid little voice neigh-saying in your head. All topics are valid.

• utilise R.D. more.

• …with found imagery, find and explore that connection to your own experiences.

• You never stop learning or looking for new ways to work.

• Sharpen observational skills. Draw from experience.

Over-analysing? Maybe.

BBC4 LIFE DRAWING LIVE

“A work of art cannot depend on explanation” - Jerry Saltz

14/05/20

Really enjoyed the webinar from VAI with CCA’s Catherine Hemelryk

INTEGRITY!

16/05/20

National Drawing Day. Really good to sit down and just draw today. Did a live-stream where I set up a still life and a few people drew along.

17/05/20

John Berger is always a good read.

18/05/20

Sketchbook work

19/05/20

VAI café

Orla Whelan: existential questions - preoccupation with death. Philosophical exploration.

Another little bit of late night sketching.

22/05/20

The virtual opening of the Catalyst Members Show.

More late night sketchbook work.

24/05/20

“An artists’ job is to reflect the time we live in.” - Nina Simone

26/05/20

“Using line to make visual texture” - Fiona Rae on Dürer

“Race to the Bottom” detail.

27/05/20

28/05/20

Started teaching my dad how to stretch canvas as I can’t at the moment.

Apparently I have the same birthday as Edward Hopper.

30/05/20

Canvas projecting.

31/05/20

Early morning reading.

“At root, truth to painting is truth to light.” - Juliam Barnes

RDH: FEBRUARY 2020

01/02/20

Detail of “Self-Portrait with Sketchbook” - painting in progress

Right, get paint down! Started two little pieces today and “The Crown of Dionysus” is complete"!

“The Crown of Dionysus” on my very dirty studio wall.

02/02/20

The last palindrome day for another 111 years. Damn rugby is distracting!

“No Remorse” - background building up.

03/02/20

Parcel.

06/02/20

“Religion decays, the icon remains; a narrative is forgotten, yet its representation still magnetises (the ignorant eye triumphs - how galling for the informed eye).”

Julian Barnes - ‘Géricault: Catastrophe into Art’

“No sooner do we come into this world, than bits of us start to fall off.”

Gustave Flaubert

09/02/20

Detail of body - “No Remorse”

Using storm Ciara to aid in the drying process.

10/02/20

Submission started.

Mobile installation?

11/02/20

…might be a little out there. Will sit on it for a while.

“Laziness is a sign of mediocrity.”

Voltaire

15/02/20

Visit by Jane and Hugh.

Victim / Perpetrator / Both

linking current work.

17/02/20

All pieces are wrapped and ready to go.

21/02/20

Slight change of plan.

23/02/20

Sketchbook work tonight.

25/02/20

Nerves are shredded already!

26/02/20

Work is on its way.

27/02/20

Well that’s it! Install complete I’m really happy with the exhibition and now it’s a waiting game for the opening.

29/02/20

Louis Fratino on Talk Art podcast.

Repeating motifs. mem: Like that odd shoulder loop that happens in drawings and then translates to paintings.

Made good progress in some areas of “Remorse” (bodies) but mostly have over painted to the point where I can’t put anything else down. Better to walk away now and go again another day than to push it over the edge today. Have reintroduced some rough drawing elements into the background.

RDH: JANUARY 2020

01/01/20

New Decade. A quiet start to the year but with a feeling of resolve and drive to get things done.

02/01/20

“For the dead travel fast.” - Jonathan Harker’s Journal

Bram Stoker’s Dracula

03/01/20

mem: Sickert’s approach to “Portrait of Hugh Walpole” - one of my favourites - could work. Drastic yes but by simplifying the colours… more painterly…. ambiguous.

04/01/20

The Optimism Gap: Locally good. Nationally bad.

“Unsafe” Commission

Finished commission. Looked at Sickert and Dumas. Previously it was haggard and stale.

05/01/20

…relieved!

A lot of scanned drawings tonight.

06/01/20

Renewal

07/01/20

Five posts in five weeks.

09/01/20

“Confessional”

Potential title?

11/01/20

Performed open heart surgery on the 206 today.

“No Remorse” painting is moving very very slowly.

Detail of “No Remorse” in progress

Overthinking personal issues.

12/01/20

Belfast today.

Incense in sunlight

Issues of “crown” install is mind boggling.

DIONYSUS

13/01/20

Office updating and uploading.

14/01/20

Jade Riley wrote a little piece about my practice. Chuffed!

16/01/20

Ideas with Dad for install concepts.

Hodge-Podge.

17/01/20

Bit of breathing issues but otherwise OK.

19/01/20

Winter sunset

“Shoah” - 1985 A film by Claude Lanzmann

Eventually got out of a rut (well even a foot out of the door is good) and got sketching.

22/01/20

“To remove unwanted threads of your past (regrets or mistakes) is to undo the tapestry of your life.” - JLP

24/01/20

CCA Derry

Darren Banks

Agnes Meyer-Brandis

25/01/20

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the opening of “The Dark” in the CCA. Agnes Meyer-Brandis’ work has made me look at geese in a slightly more positive light.

Started two new canvases and pleased with the progress of “Crown of Dionysus”.

27/01/20

“Crown” finished - including wall fixing designed by Dad.

C.E.’s shouldn’t be halted until the weekend.

Finally getting around to reading the collection of art essays by Julian Barnes. I think since I got it the day I visited John in the Royal I’ve been avoiding it.

28/01/20

Late night sketching is better than no sketching at all!

Hatchet sketch

30/01/20

“Time dissolves the story into form, colour, emotion. Modern and ignorant, we re-imagine the story: do we vote for the optimistic yellowing sky, or the grieving greybeard? Or do we end up believing both versions? The eye can flick from one road or one interpretation, to the other: is this what was intended?

Julian Barnes - “Géricault: Catastrophe into Art”

31/01/20

All in all a horrible day.