Impressions of Life

The Nora Dunne Gallery has been an out  right success to date, no doubt about it. Right for the start, the gallery has had an array of artists from all back rounds, from, amateurs to professional artists alike. Gallery Curator: Karen Harper , has a lot of experience in the field of art - been a very creative and talented Jewellery Designer/Maker herself, she has really made her mark in the gallery on the Kimmage Road. The owner: Ben Dunne is a national icon. With Ben heading a team of professional staff, he knows what he wants and seems to be a natural leader in the field of  business; now with a fine art gallery under his collar, his gallery may be the next Sotheby’s of  Kimmage! I always said it: It’s a truly fine gallery with great space, design and  natural light…(lacking in MANY galleries).

1715 paintings have been sold since Nov 14th 2008 till 30th July 2009. Next auction - Sunday 6th September 2009. Viewing held for this auction: Thurs 27th Aug - 12 - 5pm.

Visit website at: noradunne.typepad.com

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"Fish delivery van at the 'Ice Box' Coal Harbour, Dun Laoire"

This is another example of watercolour done rapidly and spontaneously. Watercolour has the capacity for resourceful situations like this - i wanted to capture the white van against the dark wall of the fish storage ‘ice box’…(this is what it’s called locally) to show the contrasts and loved the colours in general of the whole marine life, with nets crab nets, trawler masts, etc. This scene has been done to death by me: as I’ve said many times before - marine life is a strong magnet that holds me and won’t let go. I think you can tell an artists love by their work; just look at the old English watercolour master Turners watercolours - breathtaking!

"Crab Boats at Bullock Harbour"

Another marine life scene with all the usual goings on at a pier/harbour. This was done again swiftly and action was needed to do a painting as this one: rain was imminent and speed and fast instinctive action was required to finish it before the whole page was soaked. You can probably see by my work the ‘quick strokes’ of the brush, especially in the foreground water. One thing i hate: the paint takes ages to dry in wet/heavy weather- that’s where you need a e multitude of patients for outdoor painting. It’s all worth it in the end i think.

'The Bungalow' Co, Wicklow

This is a watercolour painting I’ve done only last week. i haven’t been on my blog in ages: answer…LAZY! Sorry folks, but forgive me. I love showing my work: not in a smirk, show off  way - but, a way to show people who love and appreciate ‘Plein Air’ painting, or painting from out in the great outdoors: nothing like it. It’s the REAL way to capture the landscape, especially here in this wonderful land called Ireland: simply breathtaking! If you study the sky you will see I’ve overdone it a bit i think, this is the secret with watercolour, never overdo it - you will loose the spontaneity, which watercolour is all about.

'Wheat Fields in full Sun: Co, Wicklow'

This is a painting i did around the same as the other above. I loved painting this one. The sun shining on the fields was really spectacular. The sun really blazed on the fields at the brow of the hill. It was contrasted by the dark sky..(which should have been painted darker) which was just the moment to get my sketchbook at the ready. I have my knapsack in the car: ready for the moment. I was happy enough with this painting. I hope to eventually make a oil painting out of it. The foreground van gives a sense of movement and openness.

'Pleasure Boats moored' (Dun Laoire)

This is a watercolour i did a short while back. With all my images - i love to show a dept of reality in my subjects, here is no exception. I love the water and the ‘wet into wet’ approach. I did this sketch…that’s all it really is - on a pretty sunny afternoon on my portable easel…my knees! It’s a great way to paint, fast and no fuss. When a subject confronts you - you must take full advan.tage and time wasting is not my forte. The dark back round was vital to show the highlights of the boats and there shapes, also the colour of the water.

'Trawler been painted in dry dock'

This sketch is from the same area, but it’s a trawler on a mobile boat crane. The men were hard at work painting and priming the whole hull and base of the boat. I had to capture it on paper. What attracted me was the red colour of the trawler. The new paint was so vivid and sharp in the sunlight, it was just right timing. The crane framed the whole design of the painting i think. I felt i had to put in the van, as this represented the workmen. I’m sure it’s blocking the view of the scene, but, also it adds a reality of life.

Jenny Saville: With the transvestite I was searching for a body that was between genders. I had explored that idea a little in Matrix. The idea of floating gender that is not fixed. The transvestite I worked with has a natural penis and false silicone breasts. Thirty or forty years ago this body couldn’t have existed and I was looking for a kind of contemporary architecture of the body. I wanted to paint a visual passage through gender — a sort of gender landscape. To scale from the penis, across a stomach to the breasts, and finally the head. I tried to make the lips and eyes be very seductive and use directional mark-making to move your eye around the flesh.

Simon Schama: So you really do manipulate what’s in front of you through the mark-making. It’s very striking — I’m looking at a photograph of your transvestite painting Passage and that passage that moves from the penis and balls to the belly is really about the anatomy of paint as it constructs the body.

I Love this Artist: Jenny Saville. Born in Cambridge England 1970. She studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1988 to 1992. Where she won the Craig award and Newberry medal. She won a scholarship to attend Cincinnati University for six months, where her fascination with the human form started to influence her work and Saville became interested in ‘the malls’. Where you saw lots of big women, big white flesh in shorts and tee-shirts. Depicting bodies that live outside the standard boundaries of attractiveness. Jenny moved to New York in 1994, where she was able to sit and observe the work of plastic surgeon Dr. Barry Martin Weintraub, she was allowed to take photos of the cosmetic surgery and liposuctions Dr. Weintraub performed in the theatre and gained a much better understanding of the human body. She is based in Sicily,Italy where she lives and works.

Jenny has established herself at a relatively young age. She is only 39, and her awards are ‘as long as her arm’. What I’m fascinated about this artist is not only is she true to her work, but, her representation of the human form with ‘warts ‘an all’. She has a genuine feel for the emotions on the faces and bodies she depicts, and also she paints with sombre colours in her limited palette. Black is featured in a lot of the works…(probably very dark blues and earth tones though). Jenny’s work  is represented on the new album (cover) of  the  Manic Street Preachers : Journey for plague lovers. Anyone interested in painting/drawing the human body will appreciate this talented woman.

The new Nora Dunne Gallery situated at: 52-54 Kimmage Rd West, Dublin 12. has just accepted new and exciting works from Artists of all ranges in style and colour. This new and prosperous gallery is bustling at the seams with fresh work regularly. This morning was no exception - i was there and was there were NONE of the previous works i last visited as they were ‘eaten’ up at the Auction  at the unforgettable last April Auction - it WAS a success, as everything went! WOW i say. Well done ye lot - can i have the formula please..!!

‘Camden Street’ John Morris.

‘Solace’ Markey Robinson

'Country Road, Kilternan'

This is yet another sketch i did a few weeks ago while not busy, which is rare! Maybe i am lazy though and should sketch more. I think this might make a good finished painting - maybe in oils. It deserves strong colours, and , i think oil is the medium for it. What drew me to this was the serenity of the scene and the colours of the trees. The road gives a feeling of  emptiness in the desolate landscape. A well know Irish Artist: Trevor Geoghagen is a master at this type of perspective. He loves country roads, barns, and all things relating to his beloved Co Wicklow.

'Trawlers in dock ready to unload'

This painting was done on the spot. It was painted very quickly, as i had to hurry to avoid the rain coming down. Watercolour and rain don’t go hand in hand! I was happy with the out come - even though it was done quickly, i feel you can work more diligently and effectively, as your senses are more heightened when your under pressure. I must admit - i love the transparent colours of the trawlers. Marine life never seizes to amaze me. This will probably be the start of a painting to be. I can relate to these scenes as there’s an empathy when i put brush to canvas.

Belfast-born artist Paul Henry (1876-1958) lived and worked on Achill Island for a decade, from 1910-1919, and continued to produce Achill landscapes in later life. His works, particularly the landscapes of Achill Island and Connemara, came to typify a vision of Ireland that was prevalent in the early years of the new Irish Free State.

Paul Henry was one of four boys born to a Belfast Protestant preacher, the Rev Robert Mitchell Henry. Paul came from a long line of Protestant preachers, and his maternal grandfather - Rev Thomas Berry - actually preached the Gospel on Achill Island in the mid-1830s. It is likely that Rev Berry was part of the Protestant Mission established on Achill Island in the 1930’s by the Rev Edward Nagle. Despite the family’s religious beliefs

The Road to the Mountains
by Paul Henry

Paris at the turn of the 20th century was the centre of the artistic avant-garde, home to artists such as Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec as well as some notable Irish writers, including W.B. Yeats and the unpuplished J.M. Synge in the late 1890s, Oscar Wilde and, between 1902 and 1903, James Joyce. Paul Henry, who had studied as an artist in Belfast, enrolled in a studio run by the painter James McNeill Whistler. According to S.B. Kennedy’s excellent book on Paul Henry (’Paul Henry’), the young artist was impressed by Millet and his focus on ordinary people in the countryside going about their everyday lives. Later Paul Henry turned to the avant-garde artists such as Cezanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin for their vitality, colour and energy. As Kennedy describes it:

“…In the silence and solitude of Arles and the Midi, Cezanne and Van Gogh were feverishly painting … They were painting with an inner vision. They took visible nature, and by an alchemy distilled by themselves, turned it into something entirely different. An inspired alchemy, an inspired transmutation. Cezanne and Van Gogh saw clearly because they had cast aside all the theories and prejudices of the Schools and were looking at nature as if for the first time, and above all seeing it with emotion.” I’v always had a liking to Paul Henry and his work. It’s not the liviest of work, but he was very commited to the landscape and it’s folk, especially in Connemara. If you like this artist i reccommend the book written by: S.B. Kennedy. I actually have it. It really has lovely photos and great writing about his childhood right through to the end of his life.

This is a great example of watercolour at its ‘purest’. The artist - Chiu Man Kum, a Hongkong based water colourist is in deep concentration here. When you study him, you can see he is really working quickly, but more to the point - accurately. Watercolour IS a very skilled medium, lets not ‘beat round the bush’  here. For it to be transparent, fresh and  clear, you need patients and lots of hours behind the brush. When fine tuned - the results are outstanding. I love the Chinese artists. I have never mentioned them in my blogs, but, i really have admired them along time ago. Their dedication and purity are honed to almost perfection. When i say purity - i mean, they DON’T use masking fluid, agents, an array of different ‘in fashion brushes’ and the latest easels. What they use is a very limited colour,brushes, or A brush and sometimes an easel…depending. Take a long hard look at this guy working - its so simple to look at - but doing this is really a labour of love.

The Nora Dunne Gallery Auction (Sun 19th) was a complete success! I was there yesterday for about 2 & half hours and the lot number was only No 200 when i left. I wish i could have stayed longer. There was a great crowd, with many coming and going. The bidding was surprisingly high with certain paintings. One stuck out: The great 20th Century Irish Artist: Letitia Marion Hamilton who’s painting: ‘Market Day Mitchelstown Co Cork (below) which went for €11,500. I suspect the buyer was thrilled to have an iconic artist in his/her hand. The sweat sure flowed from the brow

There were other sweet bids fought also - Norman Teelings: ‘Woman in Interior’ (below) went finally for €1,100. A really fantastic piece of art. I love this artist myself personally. To appreciate his work (as most) you have to see it up close and personal to look at the brush strokes and the brush lines, etc. John Morris is another artist who i admire so much. I actually thought the bidding would be higher. Other artists were high bids too inc: Liam O Neill, John Francis Skelton and Anna Forde. The time i stayed there was a great atmosphere with plenty of ‘craic’ and talk. The ‘main man’ Ben Dunne (owner) was indeed there as Auctioneer extraordinaire along with Professional Auctioneer: Garrett O Connor. Curator of the Gallery: Karen Harper was running around (literally) doing what she does best - her stressful  job. All the Nora Dunne Gallery staff put on a truely magificent show yesterday. I commend you all - thank you!