I have a solo exhibition in Birr at the Arts Centre, opening this week and running until the end of November. It’s running under the same title as the show in Pallas, Between the Hawthorns, but is a combination of oil paintings and the props that I use for the characters in my paintings. There’s no official launch, it’s installed and is open for viewing. The staff at Birr Arts Centre explained to me that there doesn’t always be a great turnout for exhibitions by artists from outside of Birr but being honest I don’t mind, I’ve been really busy painting for exhibitions over the last 2 years and I’m starting to feel a bit burned out, the last few paintings that I finished just felt like a real struggle and I felt like I didn’t know how much was too much with them, what details were necessary and what wasn’t. The main thing is I was happy with them, they wouldn’t have gone on display if I wasn’t.
Hilltop Domain, Oil on Canvas, 2018. One of the paintings on display in the exhibition
The reason I want the props in the show is because it’s a direction I would like to go with the work and have the costume pieces on show with the paintings and I felt Birr was a good opportunity to try it out as it’s not an exact white cube space.
My Púca horns, made from wire, foil, plaster bandage and polyfilla. They turned out a little heavier than I intended but they’re really strong so I’m hoping they’ll last. I’ve recently started playing with EVA foam so that might be a potential replacement material down the line.
I’m a little late with this post and sending out invites because I’ve been sick for the last week, another reason why not having an official launch was a good thing and have been trying to get the last few bits finished off for the show so I’ll be sending them out over the next few days. After that I’m looking forward to painting again without the pressure of exhibitions, I want to see where the work goes heading forward and I want to tweak the process. I’ll be continuing with the same theme of mythology and folklore and the same characters will feature plus the addition of new ones. I’m hoping to change up the aesthetic and also work on a larger scale. That’s my plan for the next 6 or 7 weeks and then I’m going to take a bit of a break over Christmas, and in the new year start painting toward a solo show in Westport in 2020 and apply to anything going between now and then.