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