Studio / Gallery

Pin-Board Diary

2010-10-23T00:02:00.000-07:00

The "Project Diary" that I created for this website took, as its background, a cork pin-board. At the time it only had a virtual existence. But life imitates art, and Real can follow Virtual, so now I have my own pin-board project diary.

Here it is!

Each of the little folded pieces of paper has a tiny image of one of the projects on which I am currently working.

I try to do them in as many diferent media as possible ( a selection of which is shown at the top of this page) and I move them up or down the board to indicate priorities. I can open each one to add memos, such as notes on studies or sketches that need doing next.

The complete board, with one of my sketch-books. Voila!

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Stone Mad

2010-10-22T23:57:00.000-07:00

I went down to the beach today, very early in the morning, to steal stones.

I put them in my rucksack, till I could hardly lift it, and brought them back to the studio

There are 200, that's two for every painting in the gallery.

There are two, because one stands for a painting, and the other one stands for a person, looking at it. They therefore express the relationship between picture and viewer. A painting does not exist, unless someone is looking at it.

I arranged the stones around the gallery. You could say, I left no stone unturned.

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Shelf Life

2010-10-22T23:51:00.000-07:00

My studio was always overcrowded. Because I wanted to display as many pictures as possible, there was little room for painting.

But not anymore.

There are still some paintings on some of the wall-space, but the work-shop side of things has taken centre-stage.

There are three bays, drawing media to the left, painting to the right, and in the middle, a work-space.

The shelves are full of pots, pencils, pads, paint, paint-brushes, pallette knives - perfect!

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Exhibiting in the Family Resource Centre, Ballyduff

2010-10-22T15:37:00.001-07:00

We are extremely fortunate in Ballyduff because we have a beautiful social centre just a few yards down the road from where we live. I always like to hang a few paintings there.

This is the cafe, where everyone drops in for a chat. It is an opportunity to mix art with conversation.

This is the back room where the kids meet to play computer games, and it is good to use it for an art space as well.

Art and games have a lot in common. They both take place in rectangles

The outside demonstrates how what used to be a shop has been converted to a place where people meet. Art in the community is at the heart of its purpose.

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Open Space

2010-09-30T23:59:00.000-07:00

It is 2010. The seagull who looks after the gallery has declared that it is too cluttered. Much of the scenerey has been consigned to the garden (Watch out seagull - you might be next!) The flavour of the month is de-clutter and make space.

These paintings needed something to stand on, so I constructed virtual lobster pots (you have to use your imagination a little bit).

Now the paintings are all around the room

and there is nothing

(well. almost nothing - just a bit of sunshine)

in the middle

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Piling up

2009-10-16T04:04:00.000-07:00

Notices which I had once made to go outside the house on a post were brought in to the gallery

and placed on the beach.

Shelves to hold stacks of paintings were modelled on the stands erected for milk churns when these used to be collected from farms by the creamery lorries.

The blackboard was a copy of the notices that "farm shops" display to advertise bags of potatoes and other produce on sale. It advertised my paintings in the same way.

Small paintings were on sale as if they were vegetables in a country market.
The gallery is stuffed with paintings, in stacks everywhere. As in this photo, they were at one time in boxes of all different sizes.

Sometimes the studio looked cluttered

because it was

until one day I decided to have a major clear-out

A space had to be made in the centre of the room.

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Exhibitions in the "Coast Road" Gallery

2009-10-16T01:33:00.001-07:00

There are always some of my paintings hanging in the "Coast Road" gallery, which is the community art-space which I manage in the Family Resource Centre just down the road from where I live in Ballyduff.

It is a lovely space, which used to be a shop.

I organise an exhibition each month, but if there is a bit of spare space, I always find room for a few of my pictures.

Exhibiting in the back room of the "Family Resource Centre", just down the road from where I live, is particularly exciting, as I must share the space with computers and games machines.

I like this. It seems to be making some kind of a statement about the relationship between art and play, or maybe modern technology and a traditional art form.

but I haven't figured out what yet.

I particularly love this juxtaposition.

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Making the most of the space

2009-10-16T00:47:00.000-07:00

The local builder who put in these shelves did a wonderful job, and put in these sliding shelves.

I had originally asked for them to hold digital keyboards, (synthesizers) of which I have several, but they have been given a different use now.

The trays pull out and display lots of tiny paintings on wood, some mounted,

others in hand-made frames

In the midst of all this display I also have to find a space to work

The pull-out shelves come in extremely handy

I can put my paintbox onto one,

and paint with my head in the clouds - or is it a thought bubble?

I've also got room for an easel - just about.

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A scene of scenery

2009-10-16T00:32:00.000-07:00

I frequently play on the dual notion of "scenery". Several large "flats" are juxtaposed on top of one another, as if ready to be pulled out for different scenes of a play.

This is the floor of the cottage, where the play begins

In scene 2 the action moves to an upraised area,

where the artist, the central character, sits and paints.

There is no problem with rain on this beach.

The corner at the end of the beach has been folded in two to make it fit. (Since this photograph was taken it has moved again - out into the garden)

The shape of this painting is as it would be if the scenery was seen through the front window of a car.

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Video and books

2009-10-15T23:09:00.000-07:00

The exhibition includes video and photographs of North Kerry scenery

with musical accompaniments

using computers and an overhead projector

and provides a catalogue of all the paintings that have been exhibited or are being exhibited

A picture is worth a thousand words. And there are plenty of these.

Books compete for space with pictures

so the bookshelves become wall-space

I tried to find deep symbolism to link the two

but none comes to mind.

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Clouds got in the way

2009-10-15T22:51:00.000-07:00

For a period

I decided that clouds would be nice

so I suspended them on string

and let them float around in the sky

but one day they floated away.

On the other side of the "clouds"

were paintings of North Kerry

I originally made these to go into the rear windows of the van in which I drove round doing my "in car" painting.

They show views of Ballybunion and the River Cashen

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Shelving and display

2009-10-15T22:35:00.000-07:00

A local builder

put up some beautiful shelves

and my studio

became alive

with rectangular structures.

Matrices were a nice way to exhibit small paintings.

These are a few examples I have used over the years,

both for small paintings on wood mounted on boards

.and for small framed work.

Another display format arose from the need to created a unit that doubles as a book shelf.

and then the shelves were taken over by lots of tiny pictures.

Later on

I covered the selves with white boards

So they looked like walls. For a time I thought it was an improvement

but it didn't stay like this for long ...

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Dividing the room

2009-10-07T05:51:00.001-07:00

Entering the exhibition - where the Fisherman's Hut used to be

After a while I got tired of the "Rising Tide" layout, which followed the "Mind Your Head" period, and decided to create an impression of spaciousness in the gallery by constructing four panels which formed a quadrant, dividing the room into four sections.

The effect after turning on the light

The visitor could now walk round the gallery, entering four small rooms in succession. This had the opposite effect to that intended, and made everywhere seem closed in and congested. It did however create a large amount of extra display space so that more pictures could be shown.

Moving out onto the beach

The quadrant plan also produced four separate floor spaces, which I painted in accordance with a story that was developing in my mind. The visitor still entered the fisherman's cottage, to which the artist retreated in bad weather, but the little door was gone. He or she would step out onto the beach, where the tide was still rising.

and round agin, to the quiet place

Then there were two further areas. It was first necessary to squeeze round a rocky promontory (one of the panels) to get to a secluded place, where the artist goes to find peace, and to paint. Then, going round further still, he would arrive on higher ground, and get back to the garden of the cottage. Squeezing past the last panel would bring him back into the cottage again.

and ending up on higher ground, in the garden of the cottage

There was now a danger of people tripping over the raised section, as they turned the third corner, rather than banging their head on the low doorway, as they might have done before. "Mind Your Head", would be replaced by "Mind Your Step". However, on a a fortuitous trip to Ballybunion I happened to see these very words painted on the bottom of the path which went down from the top of the cliff to the sea-weed baths. The sign writer had been cunning, and carefully painted the words, logically enough, in the order in which he wanted them to be read. The resultant was an aphorism that was even more apt:

This advice from Kerry County Council was the inspiration I needed

Once "Step Your Mind" became the theme, and the gallery was divided up into four corners, there was plenty of opportunity, both spatial and conceptual, to unite the music of the sea and the music of a keyboard to share space together.

It moved around with changing pictures, at first in perfect harmony

but eventually geographical counterpoint became

over-crowding. It was time for another change around.

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Linking with the "Family Resource Centre"

2009-10-07T00:39:00.000-07:00

A "Family Resource Centre" recently opened in the village, and I took on the job of organising exhibitions of art, both painting and photography, for the centre. It wasn't long, of course, before I used the opportunity to exhibit some of my own paintings. The following article is an edited version of an article that was written for an on-line community newspaper, "My Local News .ie" (www.mylocalnews.ie) at the time, and describes the aims and spirit of the gallery, as well as my exhibition.

The Family Resource Centre in Ballyduff is known locally as "Buds"

The newly refurbished and extended Family Resource Centre in Ballyduff, North Kerry has recently become home to a completely new and exciting artistic adventure – the creation of a much-needed exhibition space for local artists and photographers. The space takes up the entire frontage of the building opening out onto the street, and lit by numerous large east and south facing windows. The building used to be a shop, and still has some of the atmosphere of one.

The gallery space is also a café, of both the real and virtual (internet) kinds, so it is a busy people-filled social meeting place where art and conversation can mingle. The manager of the centre, Nora Lucid, is delighted to host this innovative project, which is being coordinated by local artist Bob Scott. Both of them see this development playing a major part in the future growth of painting and photography in the community. This is fitting, since the centre is known locally as “Buds”, partly after the last owner of the shop, and partly because it is such an appropriate name.

A "Drop-in" cafe where people can enjoy a chat and meet friends, surrounded by art

The name of the gallery within "Buds" - "The Coast Road" - is superbly evocative of the area, and conjures-up many images which will be repeated the art work. It was not, in fact, chosen originally with the Gallery in mind. Nora and her colleagues had already decided to name different parts of the centre after local places. The reception area and internet cafe, for example, is named after the Ferry Bridge, a local landmark where the main route north, out of Ballyduff, crosses the Cashen River. The area designated "The Coast Road" is the cafe, both an internet cafe and a "drop-in" cafe, as well as being the art gallery.

“The policy of the gallery”, explained Bob, “will be to focus on local art, by amateurs and professionals. There are a surprisingly large number of both group painting-classes and practicing artists in the area. Basically we are hoping to change the display every month, and produce an annual programme of twelve shows”.

A social environment that celebrates the beauty of the local area

Bob has temporarily put-up an exhibition of his own paintings of local places, which include Meenegohane, Paddock, the Cashen, Ballybunion, and Lisselton. This is only to get the gallery going however, and Bob will be contacting local painters and photographers, both amateur and professional, who live in the Ballyduff area, with the intention of changing the contents of the exhibition regularly. There will be opportunities for solo and group shows, and for an on-going and changing display of work in all the visual arts.

Bob’s own exhibition, on show at the moment, consists of 25 paintings of the local area, all painted in oils on canvas, size 20” by 16”, and on sale at €150 each. Local scenes and buildings are depicted, with landscapes and seascapes, including boats, rivers, cliffs, cottages, beaches, churches and countryside - in many respects marking places on a journey along the "Coast Road" itself.

A recent exhibition with which I have been involved was an "Inter-generational" project that was displayed in the Coast Road Gallery during August 2009. It arose from an idea from the manager of the local Adult Education Centre, Nora Knapp, to invite a local artist, Kieran Herlihy, to run a workshop at the centre. Kieran had recently put on an “Interactive” art exhibition in Siamsa Tire which aroused a great deal of interest, especially among young people. Kieran wanted to mix older and younger people to work together, and so four members of the Ballyduff Active Retirement Group joined with four young people from the Ballyduff / Causeway area for a week in July.

Hannah Lean and Kieran Herlihy

The Ballyduff ARG members taking part were Doreen O’Connor, May and Bob Scott, and Nancy O’Connell, who were joined by Claire O’Halloran, Georgia Knapp, Hannah Lean and Leanne Fitzgerald.

Claire O'Halloran and Georgia Knapp

On the first day, Kieran explained that the group would experience “an alternative approach to the creative process of art” with the aim of producing a “multi-media collage which will contain elements of the identities and histories of the members of the group”. The unity of their eight separate pieces of work would be achieved by “exchange of stories, opinions and experiences … and dreams” over the period of their being together.

The participants met for three hours everyday for a week, Kieran instructing the group to search their homes for objects that could be used in a work of art – so they could be painted on, cut-up, or glued together – which had some personal meaning. The group discussed the objects they had brought in and began working on their constructions.

May Scott, Doreen O'Connor and Nancy O'Connell

Each person tackled the task in a different way, depending on their own experiences and what they wanted to say. To some the inspiration was partly literary. Bob wrote thoughts about music on obsolete floppy disks. Georgia had written a serious poem about the abuse of animals for fashion. Hannah explored the evocative power of old love letters, and Leanne looked for a visual way to express a quotation from Nelson Mandella: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure”.

Leanne Fitzgerald

Visual autobiography, which Kieran compared to “a self-portrait without painting your face”, featured in the work of Doreen O’Connor, whose pieces evoked holiday memories, and in Nancy O’Connell’s arrangement of some memorabilia of flower arranging and 1960s music. May had lots of colourful necklaces, scarves, and pieces of material which she worked into female figures, while Claire looked both forward and back to places she had been and wanted to go to.

Bob Scott

Some of the materials the members worked with, how they set-about tackling the theme they had chosen, and the emerging results (not all yet finished) can be seen in the attached photographs. The exhibition opened on Tuesday 28th of July, at 8.00 pm in the Ballyduff Family Resource Centre, and ran for the month of August. In September the exhibition moved to Causeway, where it joined the exhibition of entries to the photography competition “Photographs of North Kerry” organized by Nora Knapp through the Education Centre.

"Water Music" by Bob Scott

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In the beginning

2009-10-06T01:26:00.000-07:00

When I first created my gallery, it was very different to how it is now. A visitor went in through the door, and found him or herself entering a tiny room.

Going in, this room turned out to be a tiny "study", purportedly belonging to a somewhat reclusive artist who had taken over an old fisherman's hut, on the edge of a beach, as his studio and retreat.

It seemed very dark as you walked in, and the room was full of the artist's bric-a-brac, acoutrements and objects-de-art, (otherwise known as junk).

As your eyes got used to the dark, you saw that there was tiny door, on the left, through which you could see the beach. Because the door was so small, there was a notice above it, which read "Mind Your Head". This was meant to be a pun, as well as a Health and Safety regulation, and for a long time I used it as the name of the installation.

Going out through this second door led out onto the strand. The visitor was now out in the open air, and the tide was coming in.

Close the door behind you, and don't get your feet wet.

The tide is coming in.

After having been "Mind Your Head" for some time, the gallery was given a new name, and became known as "Rising Tide" for some time.
These pictures illustrate the tide coming in, and going out.

The gallery was flooded twice daily,

at roughly twelve-and-a-half hourly intervals, in accordance with the relative positions of the sun and the moon over the gallery on that particular day.

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