I have been busy enough in my studio, I have packed my painting ready to ship to the exhibition in Museu da Chapelaria, S. Joao De Madiera, Portugal. I will be shipping it off later. I have discovered that one inch thick aeroboard sheeting they pack around appliances such as washing machines and fridges is excellent for packing up canvases....and free to collect from electrical shops...

The weather has improved slightly, I hope it warms up soon though, I am really looking forward to travelling and painting around the country. Perversely this also makes painting other art difficult because your mindset is looking in other areas.. I have met with the local authorities arts officer, with a view to organising an international artist exchange programme based around Marlay Park, it may take quite a while, some things move slowly....

I am about to head off to the studio to do some more work now, I have sent some paintings off this morning, hopefully they will sell well and the gallery will be looking for more. I need to keep things ticking over as I am not looking for a Solo show until next year, and earning an income tends to help when trying to pay bills... I need a rich Patron or a few sales, I think the sales are the more likely to happen. I want to finish off a piece this afternoon as I intend going fishing tomorrow.....it's been a while since I have been.....

I still cant read blogspot blogs but here's hoping everyone else can

Blogspot still has issues with access for some areas.........hopefully not for much longer and I know my posts are loading.

I have been busy working in my studio, I have a painting almost finished and another progressing nicely. I am finding it easier to work at the moment, my creative juices are flowing and the work is going well. The switch back to oil paints has helped too. I love the feel of them although the drying time is a drag sometimes. I have photos taken but I have not uploaded them into my computor and I'm using a notebook at the moment with no programme to take the photo from my phone. I will show them later. I will be in the studio again tomorrow....I can't wait to get back to the painting I am working on at the moment, hopefully it will continue to go well. I may start another in the afternoon, if the other two are unworkable, but I have to organise myself for a meeting on wednesday morning, so I may not get the time.
It is great to find the works progressing easily (relatively) again. I have been struggling for such a long while...I am due a few easy ones I think..I am hoping it continues for a while, and, I am still happy with them next week...:lol:

I hope this is uploading..

I have problems viewing any blogs on Blogger/blogspot.com so I am just hoping that this and my last post are visible to others. I have been up in the studio painting away yesterday but I have had a lazy day today....nothing but TV and couch. The weather is atrocious again today, there was a fishing competition but that was cancelled due to weather conditions.....and that was from a bank not a boat!! I think this must be the wettest windiest year yet..

I need to go out to look at a commission, but getting weather conditions for it is proving difficult...hopefully it will improve soon and with a little luck it will be a good spring and summer. I really want to get some plien air studies done around the country this year.

The Trout season is open again

I fished the Upper reaches of the river Liffey today....the season opened yesterday, but I was busy and did not get out. I did manage today though, and the weather decided to make life cold and wet. Heavy rain, cold winds, not condusive to an enjoyable day. I did enjoy it though managing to catch nine fish to 14 inches. I missed others, but I think they were small fish. I caught them on spider patterns, fished quite deep using a small bead-headed nymph on the point to pull the flies down.
It was nice to catch a few fish.
I am ready to go back to work now though, and wait for more clement weather.
I have a painting done of the pond in marlay again, I captured the wet grey day quite well. I painted it in oils, it was nice to get back to them again after using the acrylics..

Here a photos of the two 'Burren' paintings. I have left them aside, and I will consider them for a while. The blue is causing me concern although I like the luminescence of the paintings. The upper work is 30 by 20 inches, the lower 24 by 18.

I'm off up to my studio now, and I am looking forward to working away for the day.......Hopefully on something productive.

I am not going into the studio today. I am suffering from backache. It is not condusive to creating art.
I did quite a lot yesterday..I have taken photo's but I haven't downloaded them yet, and I am on the wrong computor to do it. I may get it done later. However I am happy enough with the progress so far. The works are very blue, which I am unsure of....mainly because they are not my usual palette. The colours are suitable to the landscape though, the cold limestone flags of the Burren in Co. Clare. Beautiful in summer with the abundant flowers, but very cold in winter with the exposed rock. I have made the sky a deep cobalt blue at the moment but it will change. I over-painted the existing sky because it did not work. I am as yet unsure of what I want to do with it so I have just given myself a blank area to work with, but one that sits in with the landscape.
I really wanted to get stuck in again today, but I had a bit of back-ache yesterday and it's worse today so I really need to rest it a bit. I also have the AGM of the angling club tonight...I hope my seat is comfortable enough....

I didn't get fishing, but I got quite a lot of work done in the studio last week. I was away for the weekend and I travelled up to Northern Ireland to have dental work done today so I have been busy all this week/weekend. I am hoping to get to the studio tomorrow again, I have a painting on the easel I want to get back to. Our angling club AGM. is this week and I am in charge of running this months club competition on Sunday so I am going to be busy this week too. The competition is our start of season Pike competition, the first of the year, just prior to the start of the trout season and our trout competitions. I hope the weather will be pleasant for it. The weather was quite good up until today, but it has been grey, wet and windy today, the trip up North and back was dreary and unpleasant, spray everywhere and poor driving conditions so I am tired. I was tired before I started though...a lot of driving and long hours over the weekend in conjunction with little sleep, plus an early start today...

Opening day blues...

I checked the weather forecast for Thursday, it is to be wet and windy, strong winds from the west.....That has put an end to any ideas about travelling over to Lough Corrib for the opening day. I have gone every year for years, but after last year (conditions similar) I realise it is too much of a trip just for the sake of going out when conditions are bad. It works out quite expensive too by the time deisel, boat hire, incidentals (meals etc.) are all taken into account, so to spend the money and 7 or 8 hours return journey driving just to get onto the lough and hide in shelter for the day is just not feasible anymore.....Old age catching up on us! realistically though it will be better if we go later in the year when fishing is more comfortable and more productive.
I am busy on friday with meetings too, and down in Wexford all weekend so the long drive and back would have been felt by Monday.. ...it is probably for the best.
.....I might pop out for a few hours on Thursday anyway, to one of the Rainbow fisheries close to home.

here is the promised picture of my self portrait. The photograph is not a bad representation of the finished painting.

I went fishing yesterday, well I went visiting a few venues......everywhere we looked was frozen over, we ended up fishing the liffey above Leixlip for an hour, but with no success...and the cold caused us to give up quickly.

We had little faith in fishing the area we were, it was the last place to try for open water as it was running. We probably should have gone straight to a river after the first case of frozen venue, that way we could have fished either the Barrow or the Suck...we travelled far enough going from area to area to do the trips anyway.

I was in the studio today, but it is too cold and miserable so I did not stay. I was also aware of the fact that the snow we have falling at the moment might make driving home difficult later. Ergo I am about to do some work on the computor.

I have been busy painting

I have been working away, painting a few studies.
They have been quite loose and I have enjoyed painting them.
I have been away here and there as well during the week, added to the fact that I potted up the 40 odd strelitzia (bird of paradise) seedlings that have started growing it has been a fruitful week.

I will endeavor to put photo's on the blog during the week, I need to download from my phone and upload the pics from the PC....I am using the laptop at the moment and it does not connect to my cameraphone. I also need to take quality photos of the portrait to send to Portugal.