Lavelle Art Gallery Relaunch Party

Gavin with friends Carol Anne and Kevin

Gavin with friends Carol Anne Joyce and Kevin Griffin

 

We will remember this June Bank Holiday week end for a couple of reasons – firstly because it was the occasion of our much vaunted ‘relaunch party’ ( a plan we’ve had in the pipeline since we developed the gallery late last year ) and secondly because of the atrocious weather. I gasped when I read the forecast early last week and I tried desperately to find just one contradictory prediction but it all became a reality on Saturday night. Continue reading

Rain, Rain

With friends at Clifden Library

This Christmas was one of the mildest and wettest in my recent memory. We’ve had almost three weeks of rain now. I’m struggling to remember a rain free day in that time. G tells me it was fine on New Years Day and I can’t figure out how I missed it! Must have had my head in a book when the sun came out! I took these photos at the week end out on the Bog road to Moyard. It was pouring rain at the time, had been raining since early morning and there was a thick mist hanging low and covering everything in the middle and far distance save for a haze of trees and telegraph poles. Several of the images are blurred due to drops landing on the lens. I quite like the some of  the results though. There’s a drama about them, a romance that I would love to be able to translate in to paint. Here’s some more blurry shots.

 

Wet day in Connemara

 

 

 

Rain on Bog Road

 

 

 

Fence on rainy day in Connemara

 

 

 

Wet Bog in the rain

Painting the Rain

It has rained a lot since last Summer, sometimes for weeks on end without a break. It is very much part of life here in Connemara. It is often possible to really see the rain moving in sheets across the sky and this can look very dramatic against the backdrop of the mountains and coastline.
Here is a photograph I took which captures this and below an attempt of mine to paint/draw the subject.

 

Photo of rain

 

 

Painting of rain

 

I have used charcoal here over the finished acrylic painting to give the effect of rain. I love using charcoal like this, smudging it in places and leaving its grubby texture just as it falls over the canvas or page. I was very struck by the possibility of using paint and charcoal together when I first saw the work of Ghislaine Howard, a figurative artist who uses both of these materials. I will look up some images of her work to put in another post.