Recycled furniture: Rote Kommode

This piece came from a garage sale in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It had been hand built by a father to hold his children's clothes. And of course, it was painted white.
I changed the background colour and had nice contemporary handles made to match my painted design. The chest didn't have any feet; I added castors instead. The name Rote Kommode refers to the vibrant red I chose.

Wood, acrylic paint, acrylic varnish, steel. 1998
66x48x97cm

Fabric design: Table cloth

Most of my fabric work I did in Vancouver, Canada. I had a vendor's stall at most of the outdoor art fairs and craft markets in the area. Often the weather wasn't clement, and driving rain threatened to get on my laid out shirts and table linens. I needed something to keep my wares dry, so I sewed and painted a piece of cloth to be attached to my big market umbrella. It worked quite well, given it wasn't too windy a day. Here in Ireland I am using my former rain protection as a table cloth.

Cotton fabric, Procyon fabric dye, Setacolor fabric paint. 1997.
Size: 150 x 200 cm

Exhibition: Perspectives 4, Ballina Arts Centre

My first ceramic figures are on display now in November, at the Arts Centre in Ballina, County Mayo. I am proud to say I built the plinths myself, too.

Brooding Man  
Air drying clay, wire. 2009. Height: 40cm

Talk to your Shadow 
Air drying clay, craft crank, cement. 2009. Height: 25cm

 
Interrogation

 Craft crank, earthenware glazes, Nichrome wire. 2009. Height: 23cm

Printmaking: Mezzotint

There is a way to achieve a mezzotint effect by running a printing plate and a sheet of sandpaper through an etching press - without felt blankets. The imprint of the grit creates small dimples in the surface of the plate which will hold etching ink and create a dark plate tone. Using a scraper and a burnisher, one can then lighten areas by smoothing parts of the plate surface which will hold less or no ink. Other techniques like drypoint or carborundum can be applied on the same plate.

I tried this technique in my print Dialogue.

Aluminium plate, drypoint, carborundum.

Charbonnel etching ink on Fabriano Rosaspina paper. 2009.
Size: 21 x 17cm

Recycled furniture: Chest of drawers

Kandinsky is the name of this piece of furniture - the first one I ever painted, transforming a really drab and flimsy chest of drawers into an eye-catching focal point. Exploring the work of this great Russian pioneer of abstract art, I came across his painting Swinging (1925). Simplified, more stylised, and with less muddled colours it was just the right motif for this chest. I mounted different knobs on the drawers because Kandinsky's clown-like figure invites playfulness.

Wood, acrylic paint, acrylic varnish. 1995
79x43x120cm

Fabric design: T-shirts

"It's raining cats and dogs" was the title of the Canada Crafts Council Christmas show in Vancouver in 1997. I designed a series of handprinted and hand dyed T-shirts for this occasion. Here is the version Cats and Dogs in the City.

Cotton fabric, Procyon fabric dye, 

Setacolor fabric paint.
Stamps carved in Speedball Speedy-Cut block. 1997.

Recycled furniture: Chest of drawers

Found at a yard sale in the Coquitlam area near Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada, this piece was originally painted pink and missing one of the large drawers. The owner worked on the local Search and Rescue team, I turned that into a title for this chest. 
My never failing cabinet maker, Alex Marcuzzi from North Vancouver, replaced the missing drawer, and Ted Martin in Pitt Meadows realised my design idea of triangles added to the back of this piece of furniture. 
I wasn't really thinking of a connection between triangles and mountains, but looking at the title - why not... 

Wood, acrylic paint, acrylic varnish, metal knobs. 1999.
Size: 107 x 51 x 91cm

Clay sculpture: The Interrogation 2

I introduced this figure group in a blog from July 17, 2009. Now my welder, Gareth Regan from Ballaghaderreen in County Roscommon, has made a steel stand for my sculpture.
It is on display at Perspectives 4, a group exhibition at Ballina Arts Centre, County Mayo, during the month of November 2009.

Craft crank, earthenware glazes, Nichrome wire, steel. 2009.
Size: 23 x 9 x 27cm

 
Gareth at work

Fabric design: Place mats

My early designs were usually created because I needed a gift for someone. These place mats here obviously were Christmas gifts. Since every member of my family was to receive one, I divided a suitable Christmas motive into four parts. The decor only makes sense when all pieces are placed together.

  Place mats Christmas

Acrylic paint, acrylic varnish, canvas cloth. 1994.
Size: 40 x 30cm

Clay sculpture: Extensions

More experimenting with thin-limbed figures which could also be cast in bronze. You'll find more of my clay sculptures in older posts - click on Clay sculptures in the blog archive!

Air drying clay (Hobby time Soft-Ton white). 2009.
Size: 52cm, 45cm

Design: Wooden boxes

When painting and selling recycled furniture in western Canada, I was always looking for smaller items that would be easier to transport and display, and attractive for a smaller wallet. One of the ideas I came up with were these wooden boxes. A friend of mine, Ted Martin from Pitt Meadows in the Fraser Valley, made MDF boxes with lids for me which I then painted, using a masking technique. These colourful functional items proved quite popular.

MDF, acrylic paint, acrylic varnish. 2000.
Size: 15 x 15 x 15.5cm

Painting: Acrylics

Only a miniature, really. It shows the view across fields, hawthorn hedges and ancient crumbling stone walls towards the Sliabh Gamh or Ox Mountains in County Mayo, Ireland. 
 

Curryaun Fields
Acrylics on board, acrylic varnish. 2004.
Size: 10 x 10cm

Fabric design: Tunic

I like this kind of garment because it's so versatile. So I bought a bolt of sturdy unbleached linen fabric and asked a friend to sew tunics for me. I dyed them in different colours and decorated them with my own stamps, cut in Speedball
Speedy Cut.
The tunics of this series are all shown on one of the mannequins I designed to display my fabric art.
 

Linen, Procyon fabric dye, Setacolor fabric paint,
hand made stamps. 1999.
Length: 82 cm

Printmaking: Collograph

For the print Home Work I used a bottle of PVA glue like a pencil, creating raised lines that leave an imprint on paper that is run through a printing press (embossing). These lines, inked up, also print and define areas of colour application. The resulting shapes can be interpreted as a domestic scene - window washing doesn't seem too far fetched...

Hardboard, Speedball waterbased relief ink, 
Caligo watersoluble intaglio ink on cartridge paper. 2007.
Size: 42 x 60cm

Papier mâché sculpture: Chickens

I am terribly fond of rusty nails, especially the ones that are left behind in the fireplace after burning bits of wood from gutted buildings. My collection of such encrusted, contorted, disfigured lengths of metal is big. I used some of them for my series of life size paper chickens.

Paper, cardboard, wood, nails, copper wire,
acrylic paint, oil varnish. 2007.
Length: 35cm, 45cm

Printmaking: Collograph

I like the contrast of the human shape and the line work of architecture. In this collograph I set a silhouette of figures against colossal buildings. The big TV screen gave the image its title: Commercial.
I used hardboard, glue, acrylic varnish and engraving tools to make the printing plate.

Hardboard, Speedball waterbased relief ink, 

Caligo watersoluble intaglio ink on cartridge paper. 2007.
Size: 42 x 60cm

Fabric design: T-shirts

Here is another example of custom made T-shirts from my design studio. I used figure-stamps and added drawings of accessories as one has seen them in a circus performance.

T-shirt Circus.
Stamps carved in Speedball Speedy-Cut block,
Cotton fabric, procyon fabric dye, Setacolor fabric paint. 1997.

Fabric design: T-shirts

Apart from painting recycled furniture, the mainstay of my Canadian design studio were T-shirts and light cotton jumpers. I dyed all the fabric by hand, and decorated the garments using stamps, stencils, foam rollers, metal tipped applicator bottles... It was fortunate that my supplier had - and still has - her store in the same village where I used to live, in Deep Cove, North Vancouver, British Columbia. If I ever ran out of something, I just had to walk up the road to Sheryl at Opulence Silks and Dyes Ltd. Gallery and replenish my stock.

T-shirt Band.
Stamps carved in Speedball Speedy-Cut block, 

cotton fabric, Procyon fabric dye, Setacolor fabric paint. 1997.

Papier mâché sculpture: Agony

When I made this small sculpture, I needed to express exactly such feelings. Wire and paper are quite suitable materials to this end! 

  Wire, paper, acrylic paint, acrylic varnish. 2008. 

Height: 50cm

Recycled furniture: Table

This design was created by masking off successive parts of the beechwood tabletop and painting it in different colours. I wasn't thinking of a particular motive, but I began to see an image:
 

Deserted place,

trees stretching toward the horizon.

Dust on the sidewalk,

dappled with sunlight.

Curtains drawn to block out the heat.

Branches yearning

for the cool of concrete.

This image reminds me of a still and brooding Sunday Afternoon, which I chose as the name for this table.

Beechwood, acrylic paint, varnish. 1999.
Size: 64 x 64 x 74cm

Fabric design: Place mats

Some of my earliest designs were for place mats. They belong on a table, so I decorated them with food and kitchen themes.

Acrylic paint, acrylic varnish, cotton cloth. 1994.
Size: 40 x 30cm

Fabric design: Tunic

I wanted to embellish something more interesting than T-Shirts and found tunics in a simple cut. I dyed them by hand and printed them, using my own stamps. The stamps were cut from different materials: Speedball Speedy-Cut and foam lining. The fine lines were added with fabric paint in small bottles with a fine nozzle. Tunics in this style were my bestsellers in Canada.

Cotton fabric, Procyon fabric dye, 

Setacolor fabric paint, hand made stamps. 1998.
Length: 92cm

Printmaking: Cardboard print

I could have called this print Tenby backwards, because that's what it is: the harbour front in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales in a mirror print. I worked from a photograph and didn't bother to reverse the image as I was interested in cutting all those intersecting lines. The print is now called Night Harbour.

Cardboard, carborundum, PVA glue,

acrylic relief ink on grey paper. 2007.
Size: 33 x 44cm

Painting: Oil

After painting Achill Gate (see previous entry) I did this scene, seen from the road that connects Achill with the mainland. The yellow sign behind a shrub near the right edge points out where the highway runs... The fiery orange sprigs of Montbretia can be found in copious clusters all over Ireland - they stand out in a landscape usually dominated by blue and green hues.

Achill Montbretias
Oil, texture medium on linen on board. 2007.
Size: 46 x 61cm

Painting: Oil

The island of Achill in the West of Ireland is blessed with landscapes that would be at home in any scenic calendar, especially when the weather is good. I painted one of these beautiful sights, the Menaun Cliffs opposite Keel.
 

Achill Gate

Oil, texture medium on linen on board. 2007.
Size: 46 x 61cm

Clay sculpture: Little Female

This sturdy figure is part of a group of two women immersed in conversation. I'll soon introduce her partner.You'll find more of my clay sculptures in older and newer posts - click on Clay sculptures in the blog archive!

Air drying clay, unfired, burnished. 2009.
Height: 24cm

Papier mâché sculpture: Conversation

Papier mâché sculpture: The Conversation

This group of three figures is arranged in a wooden box, covered with glass and frame (not in the picture in order to avoid reflection). I was looking for a way to make papier mâché sculptures less susceptible to humidity and change of temperature in a room. If the figures aren't too big, a shadow box casing like this one proved to be a good solution.






Wire, paper, acrylic paint, oil varnish
Wood, glass, hardboard. 2004.
Size: 42 x 42 x 16 cm















Here is another group: The Interpreter.
See the earphones?


Wire, paper, acrylic paint, oil varnish
Wood, glass, hardboard. 2007.
Size: 40 x 40 x 16 cm

Recycled furniture: Tall boy

Recycled furniture: Tall boy

Yes, it's from IKEA, and it was actually new, so the title is misleading. But no matter - it is hand painted like all my other pieces of really recycled furniture. Eighteen drawers - perfect storage! I added strips of copper foil for extra sparkle, and the tiny drawer pulls were painted in different colours to aid with finding things quickly.
The Green Tower was a custom order by my Vancouver friend
Debra Drayton who later moved to Mexico, couldn't take this piece with her and had to sell it on. So I lost track of it.





Wood, acrylic paint, copper foil. 1999 
120x30x20cm

Printmaking: Lithograph

Printmaking: Lithograph

I took a course in waterless plate lithography, tutored by Canadian master lithographer Jacob Semko. The course took place at Seacourt Print Workshop in Bangor near Belfast, the best facility I know when it comes to exploring new printmaking techniques.
In Cet obscure object I combined several plate marking tools, like toner wash, lithocoal, ballpoint pen and watercolour crayons.

Lithograph, Chine collé
on Somerset Satin paper. 2009.
Size: 24 x 36 cm

Fabric design: Katazome table mat

Katazome is a resist technique where areas of the fabric which are not to be dyed are blocked out. There are many different ways of blocking out; a well-known one is batik, where wax keeps dye or fabric paint from bonding with the fibres. Katazome is a Japanese technique, using rice flour paste.
I tried this on coarse cotton, and it did work, even though finer fabric would have given more detailed results. If following the traditional method, I would have used a stencil, but I preferred to do my geometric design freehand.
 

Cotton fabric, rice paste, Setacolor fabric paint. 2001.
Size: 70 x 45cm

Design: Perspective box

In my early teens an old neighbour once gave me a pile of wooden cigar boxes. I used them to create what's called "Guckkasten" in German, a perspective box or peep-show box. They contain small bric-a-brac figures in front of a matching background, arranged like frozen scenes of a story. I still have some of the original cigar boxes, and recently I needed one to make a small stage for the tin figure of Charlie Rivel, the famous Catalan circus clown. He got a luxurious curtain, gold glitter, a proper shadow and a matching frame. Curtain up!

Tin figures, wood, glass, paper, acrylic paint. 
Size: 12 x 11cm (blue frames), 16 x 16cm

This box is called The pink Dress