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I started making things. They could be three-dimensional drips or unskilled brushstrokes that invade the space in and around the paintings like a crude stage set.
‘Space is the breath of art’
Frank Lloyd Wright
Painting in the winter morning sunlight feels fresh, and I am surprised at how much I am getting into this set of canvases. They are all the same size but have different textured linen. Some are raw linen and soak up everything, giving the effect of a chalk pastel. Others are stretched with this fine portrait linen which makes the paint giddy with the fluidity of movement. These paintings have an inherent memory of places and backgrounds. They might grow up to be…
I have no idea what the green shape is or where it came from, but there is a real calmness to it as it watches over the other shapes play. Many of these shapes start as drawings and eventually jump into the oil paintings. I remember that red line shell-like shape in the left-hand corner from a drawing I did on one of the silkscreens from Berlin. The dark sculpture shape in the top right-hand corner was in a series of ink drawings that I later tore up. It conjures up a ceramic, almost …
I started this painting by drawing sculpture shapes into a large canvas. I was enjoying myself, and it soon became quite busy. I used a light blue wash to tone it down, but I wanted the drawn elements to be visible underneath. The overall effect was that the painting took on the sense of a stone, so I added the large abstract flowers to bring back some life. Then I began to paint in earnest. At first, randomly, then instinctively. At this stage, I put the canvas …
This is the journey of “Acrobats and Flowers”, one of the oil paintings in my solo show currently on view at John Martin Gallery in London. I got really into painting these black linear shapes on a red canvas but ended up painting over it in the end. It gave me the idea of painting vertical lines as a central feature, and this is the canvas that absorbed …
I’ve been working on this painting since April 2019, almost two years. Not all the time. I face the canvas against the wall for long stretches in between painting sessions. I try to change the composition by turning the canvas sideways or upside down. The process is the only thing that remains constant. Today I decided to …
The blue canvas with the interesting patina and abstract clouds has been drying since December and is now ready to be worked on. I think my paintings need time between sessions to assimilate themselves and decide where they want to go. I have to be patient with them. I added a red shape inspired by a smaller canvas, and things were going well until I got caught in a painting pothole and couldn't
I bought this green years ago when I was travelling. Oh god, do you remember when you could travel! That's when I got it, but I never used it. The reason I never used it - I never had a reason to use it. I never knew what colours it would go with. But since I have been in lockdown, in a …
It’s a day for ducks. The rain is lashing down outside while I’m trying some thin line drawings on canvas. I have been thinking of introducing thin lines for a while, and my sketchbooks are filled with drawings in this vein.
The drawings just have to manage to jump from sketchbook to canvas now. Even if they make it across, I will probably rub the lines out or paint over them in the coming days; who knows...
The oil paintings locked me out, and I couldn’t paint, but luckily my wax for the bronze sculpture saved me. I like working in wax. It’s a great medium that allows you to get lost in the process. I also began painting into these tiny etching prints with acrylic and ink. The line drawing in these is very different from painting in oil. I think the time spent working on the etchings loosened me up enough to return to the oils on canvas, and you can see how I am finding my way back to them towards the end of the video. I am enjoying painting in oils, but the paintings I am working on at the end of …
This is the studio story of two dark oil paintings as they try to resolve being invaded by a flying beast with a Cupid on its back. Sometimes being in an artist studio is like a day at the races. You need to take a chance. This vlog is about taming the beast and facing fears while dreaming of adventure—thoughts prevalent in the past months of 2020 and now 2021. In my work, they have surfaced with this Cupid creature on a flying …
There is a painting I have been working on for over a year now. It’s the blue one on the left with a boat of floating sculptures in the centre of it. It’s still nowhere near finished, and I will probably end up having to paint over it. A few days ago, I took a break from it by starting a batch of small canvases with this wash of orange oil paint. They are a nice distraction and a great way to experiment with new shapes without gambling a mature canvas. After a few days, they were dry enough, and I paint some sky blue…
When flames and snakes are your neighbours, they can't help but be part of the story. This rough, heavy-duty cotton canvas has been in my studio for probably eight years. It was unprimed, so I spent months applying thin layers of oil paint before it went anywhere. I like the dryness that comes from all that soakage and the roughness of the surface. There were wildfires near the sea, and you could see the glow of orange at night in the distance. I was grappling with a shape similar to the one I am painting here back in Ireland. I tried it again when I got to Italy, but it wasn't until I saw the shape as a flame that it unlocked itself. On some of the smaller landscapes, these flames appeared …