Sigil #2

A second set of oil pastel drawings created for this weeks Hilma Af Klint kick about over on Red’s Kingdom. It was an enjoyable experience to draw traditional again and feel the pastels glide on textured paper.

Sigil #1

This weeks Kick About over on Red’s kingdom is the mystical creations of Hilma Af Klint. I have been yearning to do some traditional art lately, probably due to the fact that, during the Christmas break, my nieces and nephew received some arty presents. Here are some oil pastel drawings similar to some Irish sigils.

The Burning Landscape #3

The third and final cluster of images created in response to JMW Turner’s Vesuvius in Eruption. Leaning into what the photograph was telling this bunch took a different turn to its predecessors.

The Burning Landscape #2

A second assortiment of mixed media photography created for this weeks JMW kick About over on Red’s Kingdom. The goal being to turn my photography of Rural Ireland into ruinous oil paintings.

The Burning Landscape #1

This weeks fortnightly creative prompt over on Red’s Kingdom is the painting – Vesuvius in Eruption by Joseph Mallord William Turner. I was awestruck by the colours of turners painting, especially the light and darkness and contemplated about how the land after Mount Vesuvius would have been teamed in nothing but dark ash and charred to a crisp. The suffocating poison smoke billowing into the air, the wispy remains of trees and how the lava would have cemented over the landscape. I decided to seep through the surplus of landscape photography I have of of rural Ireland and gave a whirl of harmonising in apocalyptic darker hues to turn my photography into the style of ruinous oil paintings. Here is some mixed media images created by digitally painting over my photography of those images of rural Ireland.

Shadows on my Wall #3

A third and final set of photography for this weeks Vilhelm Hammershøi Kick about over on Red’s Kingdom. A different earlier set in the process this time – taking notice and documenting light as it created various shapes against different elements within my home.

Throwback – Golden Hour Hues

Now that the evenings are creeping in I reminisce about times spent in Ireland during the Winter. I know that pictures of sunsets is one of the things that are overabundant on the internet but something magical happened on this particular evening on one of my usual routes trudging through the boglands of rural Ireland. I am no meteorologist but the gloomy clouds crept in out of nowhere during this trip while away in the distance the golden hour gleam lit up where I was standing in a brilliant red, Yes the photos have been edited to bring out the red but done so in a way to highlight how it felt in the moment, while further away the ghostly spherical arc of a rainbow could be seen. I felt like I was in the epicentre of a storm – it was one of those moments where I basked in what was going on around me and before I could take any more photos from different angles it was gone in an instant.

Low Dense – Brian Retunberg Inspired Painting

This weeks Kick About prompt over on Red’s Kingdom is bursting with vivacious pallets of colour in response to the vivid painting of Brian Rutenberg – Low Dense.

When I was an ambassador for University one hot summer similar to the melting heat in the UK at the moment I was tasked with taking down the graduate shows of the students that proudly presented their creative work to their family, friends and fellow students. I spent a few weeks dismantling the makeshift wooden stages, pulling out nails and painting over the brightly coloured stripes and symbols that students designed to present their work in theme with their creations.

One task that I had to do was take large painted canvases that students had painted on and throw them into the skip near the smokers shed where I spent many lunch breaks laughing and smoking my lungs out with my friends and classmates. It always saddened me to know that some students would rather dump their work no matter how large the canvas was, so instead of giving them the heave-ho into the trash I told my thrifty friends of the free large canvases that they happily decided to take back to their uni homes and upcycle to their hearts contents, painting and drawing what they please.

I kept the largest canvas for myself, Dripping in sweat carrying this beast down the iconic Rochester hill and ended up sandwiching it into my tiny uni bedroom. I never did anything with the canvas for years – it has since followed me along with two house moves. I have had ideas, I cut out all the silhouettes I kept from life drawing classes and thought about doing a collage of all of them together on the large canvas, but never did but I always knew I would when the time was right.

I have always loved Rutenberg’s kaleidoscope of colours, with the blocks of different variants of hues having such an immense power of depth to them. I thought it would be the perfect chance to finally let loose upon this canvas and use the many tubes of paint that I have stashed from many Christmases gifts that otherwise have been left to gather dust. I couldn’t think of any better way to spend a hot day – sitting outside in the heat with a cold beer or two and painting away in the garden. It was a therapeutic experience to say the least. I think I may have to figure out how to make my own canvases.