Favourite Blog

by Deborah Watkins. Posted on May 5, 2012

05 May

I have taken this idea from Elettrarossa, a follower of this blog, a jeweler, creative person, ‘Etsian’ and blogger herself. The idea is to promote blogs with less than 200 followers and spread the word!

It has not been an easy task but here are my top five – click on the titles to go straight to these blogs.

1. Geninne’s Art Blog

I discovered this blog recently and enjoy reading about Geninne’s latest projects and also her inspiration, which is drawn from her surroundings in Sunny Mexico. The sunlight and colour that breathe through her photographs and imagery make me want to visit this beautiful country.

2. Catherine Ryan Paintings

I met Catherine several times before I discovered that she is a fellow blogger. She spent some time here in Clifden with a mutual friend and taught a series of very successful art classes to local children, mine among them! Catherine also exhibited her paintings while she was in Clifden and we are now the proud owners of two of her wonderful pieces which we all enjoy very much. I am delighted to follow Catherine’s blog and would recommend it to anyone interested in contemporary Irish Art.

3. Koukla House

This blog is written by my sister in law who is living in Brisbane, Australia. It is about her latest project which is the furnishing and decoration of her new house. Tina is Greek Australian and she has taken the Greek word ‘Koukla’ or pretty thing as a goal for her new home. Following Tina’s blog is a way of staying in touch with family and I find her journey an interesting one as a keen home maker myself. Plus we girls like to support each other!

4. Vitrified Studio Work

I have just discovered this blog through etsy.com. Shelley Martin is the artist/potter and she was the featured seller on etsy’s front page recently which is how I connected with her blog. I love her simple clean style and the purity of her work. It is a great pleasure for me to read about a potter’s life as I too made pots for many years.

5. Bridget Farmer

This is another beautiful blog that I have stumbled upon. Bridget is an artist/printmaker who is originally from Northern Ireland but now lives near Melbourne in Australia. I admire her blog for it’s style and the interesting way that she talks about her processes. I especially like her bird prints and the way that she uses line in such a loose and expressive way.

So, that’s my list. I hope you enjoy it and thanks again to Elettrarossa for sharing the idea and also for her support. Now it’s over to you to play the game if you like. Just download the banner, nominate your own top five bloggers (with under 200 followers) and notify them of their inclusion in your list via a comment in their blog.

Inspiration – Henry Moore’s Sheep Drawings

by Deborah Watkins. Posted on April 30, 2012

30 Apr

I was reminded recently of Henry Moore’s beautiful sheep drawings while taking photographs of a ewe with her lamb. Moore is perhaps best known for his large sculptures. There is a very fine example of one of these in Trinity college Dublin, photographed below. This piece is called ‘Reclining Connected Form’

Photograph by Andre Winlondon at http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewinlondon/3440955256/

I read recently that when asked by his niece why the titles for his work are so simple, Moore replied “All art should have a certain mystery and should make demands on the spectator. Giving a drawing too explicit a title takes away part of that mystery so that the spectator moves on to the next object, making no effort to ponder the meaning of what he has just seen. Everyone thinks that he or she looks but they don’t really you know” *

I take the first part of this as something to really strive for myself in my own work. I also appreciate it as an observer of art and nature myself – the skill of looking is so often undervalued.. but I digress!

These are the sheep drawings I have been thinking about. Moore made a wonderful collection of them and several of the ewe with her lamb – mother and child – a subject which he drew from throughout his career.

Photographs reproduced from the Henry Moore Foundation website

Moore has such sympathy with his subject. I love the expressions and gestures in these wonderful wiry drawings. These and many more are available as a collection in a book published by Thames and Hudson ( below ) which I would recommend to anyone with an interest in drawing.

Day, Elizabeth. “The Moore legacy”. The Observer, 27 July 2008.

Clifden – 200th Birthday Celebrations

by Deborah Watkins. Posted on April 12, 2012

12 Apr

Clifden is celebrating an important birthday this year and there’s lots going on!
200 years ago, a landlord named John D’Arcy founded the town on his private estate. The town plan was triangular in shape, consisting of two wide streets which converge at Market Square and are connected by a narrower street at the lower side. When I look at old photographs of the town, it is astonishing to discover how little it has changed over the generations.
A website has been set up to mark the occasion and highlight some of the events that have been scheduled for 2012. It’s well worth a look, particularly if you are planning a visit to the area.
This photograph below shows Market Square as it was in the 19th century. Anyone who is familiar with the town will recognise Foyle’s hotel in the centre right of the frame and and E.J. Kings pub on the far right. The town is virtually unchanged as it is captured here ( apart from the very recent developments in Market Square ). I find it hard to reconcile the images of the people who have been frozen in time, long since gone.

Image from the Clifden 2012 website gallery and courtesy of the National Library of Ireland
Click here to go straight to the Clifden 2012 website

The second photo below is of Main Street in the 20th century – perhaps you can guess the year by looking at the cars. Once again, this street and many of its buildings are instantly recognisable.

Image from the Cifden 2012 website and courtesy of the National Gallery of Ireland

This final image is Clifden as you might find it to day. We are looking down at Market Square – Main Street is on the left of the frame and Market Street on the right. It was taken during last years St. Patricks day parade. It is an image bursting with colour, celebration and community and to my mind, shows Clifden at its very best. Note the brightly colored buildings – this is very characteristic of the town – each year the ladders come out and shop fronts are given a fresh coat of paint for the tourist season ahead.

Image from the Clifden 2012 website and courtesy of Terence O’Toole

Inspiration from others – Ghislaine Howard

by Deborah Watkins. Posted on March 12, 2012

12 Mar

Ghislaine Howard is an English painter whom I have admired for some time. Her drawings and paintings are bold and expressive and I love the way that she uses her materials so powerfully.
Although Ghislaine has done many landscapes, her work is primarily about the human figure.

Her maternity paintings are the ones I admire most personally, the portraits of her expectant self and the series she made as an artist in residence at the women’s hospital in central Manchester in the 1990’s. Here is a link to a gallery of these paintings on the artist’s website;

http://ghislainehoward.com/art-paintings-drawings/the-human-condition/

Drawing seems to be at the core of everything she does and I love the expression she gives each mark – sweeping black lines that sometimes stand out and sometimes merge with colour.

These two images below are taken from an exhibition called ‘The Choreography of Walking’ which took place in the University of Salford in 2011. This work was done in conjunction with the university’s Podiatry department and celebrates the simple act of walking.

( reproductions from Arts Development Team, University of Salford’s photostream on Flickr )

I love the sense of movement in these paintings and the bold use of colour and line. I admire too the way that each gesture – line, brush stroke and smudge sits undisguised just as it was made. This brings the paintings alive for me because it is as much a celebration of the act of painting itself as it is of the subject matter.

A Treasury of goodies

by Deborah Watkins. Posted on March 2, 2012

02 Mar

I have just about recovered from my own excitement at getting my etsy shop up and running! It has been the culmination of a lot of work and energy and now that I am online, I am enjoying getting to know some of the etsy community. This is a really great thing when you are living in a fairly isolated part of the world like Clifden.
I have connected with people by making a couple of etsy ‘Treasuries’ which are collections of hand picked items with a theme. Apart from being lots of fun to create, they are a really good way to get in touch with other artists. People are notified straight away when their work is selected and so a connection is made when they make a comment and then view your work.

I called this Treasury ‘Mothers and Daughters’ which may be a little fanciful but I chose things that reminded me about this theme and I decided on mushroom pinks and browns for my main colours. You can look at this collection and some others by clicking on the title below.

Mothers and Daughters

Etsy is a feast for the eyes, when galleries and city life is so in accessible. Enjoy!