"Readers, River, Dreaming"

                                                          "Readers, River, Dreaming" 
                                                     Oil/ Egg Tempera on Canvas 
                                                                     90 x60 cm

Inspired by light, woods, dreams, childhood days in the summer and set in the idylic surrounds of the Killarney lakes, this painting is now available at;

                                                       The Lyndsay Gallery,
                                                       7a Monkstown Crescent,
                                                       Co Dublin.
                                                       http://thelyndsaygallery.com/                         

Artists Interview with iArt

Twitter is a great way to promote your work and last week I had the honor of being asked to do an interview!
It reveals just a little bit more about me and my work. So please drop in and take a look;
http://www.pet-portraitartist.co.uk/2011/06/iart-interview-with-artist-jackie-edwards/

Many thanks to Melanie Phillips for giving me this opportunity to gain more online exposure,
its a great site with some amazing artists so I am very proud to be amongst them.

Melanie can also be found on Twitter @iArt-info
Good on you Melanie!

Present and Future.

It is six months into the year and its all systems go.
My mind is an abundance of paintings! I am painting really for two shows.
I have nearly all the research,  references, sketches, planning and most of all people who have modelled, all wrapped up for my Tattooed Project. So now I am, and have been working on the paintings.
I admit I was worried as I  found that there is a fine line in how NOT to portray tattooed people and how I want the paintings to look!
These paintings are not "pop art" or "goth" or any of those tags just because they include people with tattoos,, but my own self and work is starting to shine through already, and of course, the sitters speak for themselves.
I want "dynamic" but also I have figures in beautiful settings and some to look like old masters, but with a modern twist.
I think its working as my paintings are unfolding and the idea"s I have are completely my own.

The R.D.S  is calling, and this year my stand will be number K1. Right at the front which I am grateful for.
This will be my third year showcasing my work at this prestigious event and the run-up is always exiting!
With paintings and some work in charcoal already well underway.
The Art fair to me is a must - I get a break- and talk to lots of people about my work and hopefully stand proud in front of it.
Deadlines!
 The  R.D.S , Dublin will be held this November and I will be showcasing all the paintings on line during the show with details nearer the event.

In the MEANTIME, I am involved with "The Blueprint Presents" a must for this years
Eigse 2011 Carlow Arts Festival. Now in its forth year and 18 artists exhibiting.
So please drop in to view the fabulous paintings and sculpture on show.
I would love to meet you and I will be there this Sunday 19th of June- the last day!

                            

The Northern Ireland Tattoo Convention.

         Yet another Irish bank holiday has passed! Saturday was a beautiful sunny day-at last.
 What did I do?
Well, I had had a great and very interesting trip to Belfast where the Northern Ireland
Tattoo Convention was being held in the Ulster Hall.
A must for my tattooed project, which is now into its sixth month. A last search for my smaller, "heads" series of paintings that will be in my show. Real characters, older people who have a life time of carrying their art on their skin.
The idea was to go along, with a photographer and set up in a corner somewhere and see what happens and who turns up that might be interested in allowing me to paint them.
        Things, however never always go to plan and my" photo guy" couldn't make the trip!
I tried every thing I could to get some one else, but this was on the Thursday before the June bank holiday weekend and no one was to be found. O.k, I thought, its either not go, which would be pretty upsetting as I just could not miss this opportunity,
or, do it myself!
         So then I had the idea to hire a good camera and tripod to set up- no joy.
So, very nervous about going alone with just my small digital camera, I  set off from Wexford at five a.m Saturday morning.
Robert, one of the organizers of the Convention was very kind in allowing me to set myself up for my projects sake and said be there early!

        I have to say, even, when I was past Dublin, and well on track to Belfast, I had questioned myself as to WHAT WAS I DOING?
     Going in, on my own, with no photographer and stand there, asking people would they pose for me and my small digital!
     Several times, I nearly turned back, but as I neared, there WAS no turning back. Its a straight road to Belfast.

       When I arrived, the organizers couldn't of been more helpful. Even the security men came outside and drove in front of me to the car parked to help me park, great.
And what a day I had. O.k, no set up that looked professional- just me and the camera, explaining to people I met that looked good, about my project. Would they allow me to paint them?
         My first "victim" was Derek. Derek attracted me immediately! Exactly what I was/am looking for. An older gent with his head and face covered in tattoos. So nice and very obliging, the light in the morning was also good in there, shinning down from the huge windows in the Ulster hall and catching his face from one side, which is the lighting I prefer, rather than a light that casts no shadows. As derek had a tee-shirt that covered him right up to his neck, he very kindly took off his shirt outside so I could take shots of him posing, to show his other body tattoos, beside a chopper motorbike- brilliant-and plenty others were out there to take shots of him as well!
       So, derek was the first of many similar and I cant tell you how happy I am now. I have given my card and details to everybody I would like to be included in my show, taken photographs and notes and away I went. I got every thing I"d hoped for and more.
What a day.

Sometimes the scariest looking people turn out to be the nicest.

   

"Mise Eire" and The Legend of The Petticoat Loose.

                                                                  "Mise Eire"
                                                      Oil/ Egg Tempera on Canvas.
                                                                   80x60 cm
                               Available at The Lyndsay Gallery, Monkstown,Co Dublin.
                                                   http://www.thelyndsaygallery.com/
                                                       Can be shipped worldwide.

                                I"d like to share with you my painting "Mise Eire".
The setting for this lady in white is the beautiful  "Petticoat Loose" lake, in the Knockmealdown Mountains in Tipperary.
For me I had to call it by its present title, but it could well of been titled something else as it reminded some of a local legend of the lake up in the mountains that I later became familiar with-
The White Lady of the Lake!
So I thought I"d add this story for you, I do hope it isn't too long but the whole point of it is at the end.
Here goes.

The Legend of Petticoat Loose

Petticoat's real name was Mary Hannigan. Born during the time of the hedge-schoolmasters in the early part of the nineteenth century. She was the only child of a well to do farming family. They lived in the townland of Colligan, which is not far from Clogheen. Now Mary was not the type of woman you could call feminine; she was as tough as nails, near six foot tall and built in proportion. She did the work of a man on her father’s farm without thinking twice about it. If there was one thing that Mary Hannigan was known far and wide for it was her dancing. Spinning and whirling around the dance floor, no man could match her. That is except for one hefty lad, and his prowess led him into a marriage with Mary. A marriage closely followed by his early death.
Now how Mary came to be called Petticoat Lucy came about like this. There was a wedding in the neighbourhood with drinking and dancing well into the night and through to the early hours of the morning. Now Mary was able to drink as well as she could dance, and as she spun around in a drunken dance the buttons of her skirt caught onto a nail. The buttons burst open and her skirt fell to the ground, to the great delight of the others in the room who laughed and jeered her. This is the incident that earned her the name of Petticoat Loose which became Petticoat Lucy over time. Not being one to take foul comments lightly there was soon fists flying in all directions as Mary landed many a clout on her mockers.
It is said also that Mary and her husband had difficulties with their herd of cattle and often added water to the milk to make it go further. There were rumours by some that when Mary's milk was added to tea it turned blue and some older locals whispered that she might be a witch. Now Mary had been married a year when, one night as she and her servants were milking the cattle there came a cry of agony from a nearby field. A servant girl began to run towards the field to help however she was soon stopped by a milking stool which hit her square on the back of the head knocking the poor girl out. When she came to Mary told her it was she who had thrown the stool and that it served her right and that in future she should learn to mind her own business. Mary’s husband was never seen again after that night. The locals in Colligan concluded among themselves that Mary’s lover, a local hedge-schoolmaster, had committed the murder. When asked of her husband’s whereabouts Mary would simply answer that he had gone away and that he would return someday. Nobody dare question her further for fear of her violent temper.
One night about one year later Mary went on a drinking bout in a local public house accompanied by some of the neighbouring workmen. After several pints she was challenged by one of the workmen to prove her drinking skills. After gladly accepting the offer half a gallon of beer was placed before her. She drank it down with ease and she was in the middle of gloating to the other workmen when suddenly she slumped forward onto the table, dead. She died without a priest, which was an awful thing to happen back then. There was a big wake for Mary and the whole village turned up to pay their last respects but no priest was called, even for the burial.
Seven years passed and Petticoat Lucy was near forgotten. Then one night there was a dance in Colligan. Half way through the night, near midnight a man went out to catch a breath of fresh air. When he went back into the dance hall he was as white as a sheet. With a shaking voice he told the others in the hall that he had seen Mary sitting on a pier in the yard. All were afraid to leave the dance hall until morning. After that night Mary was seen in many places around the area and most now believed that that she had become a witch.. One night a man with his horse and cart was travelling down a dark country lane when he came upon Mary standing at the side of the road. The driver didn't want to stop for her, but she jumped aboard the cart anyway. Once on the cart, she decided to punish the driver for his reluctance to stop for her, and she raised her left hand and declared, "I have one ton in this hand!" The horse slowed down a bit then, as though the cart was heavier, but he kept walking. Then the witch raised her other hand and announced, "I've got one ton in this hand!" The horse slowed a little more but continued his progression; and the witch smiled and announced, "I've got one ton in this leg!" at which the horse began to strain very hard to pull the cart. "I've got one ton in the other leg!" Then, "I've got one ton in my belly!"
With the effort of trying to pull the enormous load, the horse fell down dead - and Petticoat Lucy ran away laughing. Soon it became common practice for people travelling at night to bring a safe guard with them mainly religious relics and hazel sticks.
Finally the people grew tired of living in fear of Petticoat Lucy and they called upon the parish priest to rid the county of Mary and her nightly visitations.
The priest set out that very night on a pony and trap accompanied by two men. After sometime they spotted her coming across a field, the priest asked her name and she replied "I’m Petticoat Loose". The priest then got off of the trap took out a bottle of Holy water and said "I am going to banish you from this place forever! All the devils in hell can’t help you now! For all the cruel things you did during your life, especially getting a man to kill your husband. I shall send you to the far banks of the deepest lake in the Knockmealdown Mountains and you shall be condemned to empty it with a thimble!" With those words and a splash of the holy water Mary vanished in a flash and she was never seen again. Many believe that she is still up there sitting on the far bank of Bay Lough with her thimble, vainly trying to empty the lake.
It is also said that St Patrick is claimed to have drowned the last snake in Ireland in the very same lake but few ever now swim in that lake because of the fear that the spirit of the old witch would grab your legs, pull you under and keep you there forever.

---

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Return to Blog!

At last I"m back!
Got more than a fright when I have been unable to access my blog for some reason, not due to forgetting my password so I had to change it twice AND go through a google form to gain access so you can imagine how happy I am to be back.
Have any of my followers lost a blog?
It must be crushing, all the work.

So what have I been up to lately?
On the easil a new painting for my tattooed project. I"m very exited about this one from the very early stages of composition.
I am sure that most artists agree that if the composition works from the start, the painting is successful.
Hope I dont eat my words on this but it is looking good. Oil on a 105x80 cm panel.
Light and shade roughly formed and a female figure in a very beautiful setting.
Life is good!

Limited Edition Fine Art Gliclee Prints

These two Limited Edition Prints are offered at a reduced rate for a short time only on this blog, so, if you like them, nows the time!
Many thanks.


Please see the Paypal easy option to the side of this blog and click either,
Option 1. "Ta Siad ag Teacht"
Option 2, "The Guinnes Smile"
Many Thanks.
                                         
                                         
                                                      "Ta Siad ag Teacht" (They"re Arriving)
                                               Fine Art Limited Edition Gliclee Print on Canvas
                                                                          51x50cm
                                                Offered at half price at 125 euro
                                                                 

                                                              "The Guinness Smile"
                                                 Fine Art Limited Edition Print on Canvas
                                                                    41x40 cm
                                                    Offered for half price at 100euro

                                         Prints are limited to 100 and signed by the artist.
                                         Presented with a 2" wide white boarder.
                                         Delivery worldwide within three working days.
                                         Delivered in a secure cardboard tube.