"Discover the Artist Within" Acrylics Art Class - November Class

As promised here are the photos from the Two day Acrylic Workshop I ran for beginners recently. It was attended by four very dedicated students, during the day (10.30am - 2pm), giving people a chance to come along and Discover The Artist Within.  The class began with a little upside down drawing to limber up the right brain. They then sketched out what was a very simple still life consisting of vegetables and cheese on a cheese board. To make life easier and save on time the class traced out their images onto canvas before commencing a simple colour theory exercise.  Day two concentrated on painting itself and addressed the fundamentals of painting:  how to paint in acrylics, dynamics of light and shadow as well as colour itself and most importantly of getting to know the artist within them.

Which they certainly did! Here they all are with their finished paintings looking extremely pleased with themselves. I thoroughly enjoyed the two days myself and plan on running these workshops on a regular monthly basis. I will be offering gift vouchers for sale up to Christmas, so if you live locally to me here in West Clare, Ireland and would like to give the gift of an art class to someone you know, then feel free to contact me through my website or if you know me personally then of course, give me a call on my mobile.  


Next "Discover the Artist Within" Workshop:  20th/21st January 2010.  Community Centre, Kilrush, County Clare.  Booking is essential.

Healing through Art

Hello everybody. I am not at home at the moment and feeling like a fish out of water without my family, my own bed and my laptop, so I can't post up anything at the moment.But don't despair. When I get home I'll post up some photos of what I've seen down in the little fishing village where I used to live as a small child and where I returned this week to bring my parents home to rest. A tough week by no stretch of the imagination but I am looking forward to coming home for a good rest next week and will be back at the drawing board re-charging my batteries. The coming weeks are going to be a healing process of a phenomenal scale and being a believer that Art is very healing I hope that something amazing will come out of this time.

I will also be blogging, posting up photos of the art class I ran last week. It was a big success and it is my hope that it will be followed by many more in 2010. There'll also be more news about those classes in my next post.

Wherever you are, I hope you are all keeping well. Thank you to my new visitors and for all the support I've received from fellow bloggers. It has meant a lot to me!

Farewell Dad

I received some very sad news this week that I am still having trouble adjusting to, but it's made me think about a few things. Mainly life, the past and where in what direction I am heading into. My father passed away suddenly this week. While I never got a proper chance to say goodbye, which has been hard, I can be thankful that it was a very peaceful departure. 

There are some who insist I got my artistic genes from him, but sadly as he was pencil/paintbrush shy and didn't share any of his work with me I have nothing to compare to. Hopefully in what I am doing in my life as an artist and illustrator his contribution will shine through. So here's a big thanks Dad.

photo above taken by NASA 1972 but redistributed by http://www.pdphoto.org